The End of the Circus: The Fall of Gashleycrumb
by Pyeknu
Summary: Side story to the main story, set sometime after the Battle of P'yŏng'yang as depicted in Parts 28-33 of the main story. As events in the Far East still rock the world, one large wing of Yiziba's largest and most feared battle group makes their public appearance in London, which unleashes all sorts of interesting happenstances for many concerned parties.
1. The Secrets of Gashleycrumb

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the **_**Copyright Act **_**(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

_**London, 221B Baker Street in Marylebone near Regent's Park in the City of Westminster, the Monday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, two hours before breakfast (Tōkyō **__**time: Mid-afternoon)...**_

"You up, John?"

A groan escaped a certain retired Royal Army Medical Corps captain as he trudged out of his bedroom and came down to the living room of the flat in one of Westminster's high-end neighbourhoods, it overlooking the exposed part of the Underground's Baker Street Station. Stopping to look at the desk by the window, John Watson blinked in surprise on seeing his flatmate relaxed and quite alert, gazing nowhere in particular. "How long have YOU been up?" the doctor who helped chronicle the adventures of the world's first true private consulting detective demanded as he moved to make morning tea.

"Mycroft called me an hour ago to inform me that the incident Saturday in Alnwick has generated quite the delivery to the Specialized Warfare Fencibles," Sherlock Holmes calmly stated.

That made John blink before he gazed on the kitchen table to see that day's _Daily Mail_ sitting there. Gazing at the full-sheet picture, he then gaped. "That's...?!" he began, his eyes widening.

"Eleanor Catharine Smith, having been sworn in just after midnight our time this morning by Mycroft as an honorary commander in the Royal Naval Reserve," Sherlock explained in his usual deadpan voice, his eyes not wavering from the point in the opposite wall he was focusing upon. "The living kami of Royal Mail Ship _Titanic_, the wreck of which was transformed and Gifted yesterday evening at 8:27 PM Universal Coordinated Time. You'll note who's she depicted shaking the hand of, John."

John looked again. "Professor Robert Ballard."

"Correct. The good professor was leading an examination of the wreck site to see if others had caused damage to the hull sections since his last major survey of the scene in 2004. Of course, Eleanor's return was 'pushed' in a way by her elder sister's return on Saturday. It turns out that when the kami of _Olympic_ became Sarah, the kami of the tender _Nomadic_ and _Olympic_'s youngest sister _Britannic_ also decided it was time to 'return to service'. You know already of Nancy Rostron..."

"_Carpathia_."

"Right."

John nodded before he moved to finish preparing his tea. "How would _**civilian**_ shipgirls be employed in the Fencibles anyway, Sherlock? Yes, the basic FISS powers are there, but they wouldn't possess the instinctual know-how concerning their bodies' offensive capabilities like the kami of a warship would automatically understand." Shaking his head, he came over to sit across from his flatmate, angling himself in such a way that he didn't distract Sherlock from his current meditation.

"According to Nancy, Sarah has electrokinetic powers, Eleanor is a pyrokinetic, Charlene has empathic and telekinetic healing capabilities and Gwenaëlle has enhanced strength. Given what she was..."

"The _Nomadic_," John concluded, grateful that his time with one of the world's smartest men had given him the chance to develop his own deductive skills. As his flatmate nodded in approval, the retired Army doctor added, "French given name. _Nomadic_ was registered in Cherbourg..."

"Sherlock! John! Ms. Rostron is here!"

Hearing their landlady call out, Sherlock called back, "Send her up, Mrs. Hudson!"

Footfalls echoed from the stairwell leading down to Baker Street proper, heralding the arrival of a rather diminutive twenty-something dressed quite conservatively for the modern era...though back in the time Nancy Rostron was a steel ship sailing the New York/Fiume run to transport immigrants to America, what she currently had on would be seen as downright shocking: Black slacks and a white ruffled blouse under a cardigan done in the tartan pattern composed to honour her future fleet mate RMS _Queen Mary_ when she was built at John Brown and Company in Clydebank during the Depression.

"Good morning, Nancy," Sherlock called out to the transformed liner. "Thank you, Mrs. Hudson!"

"I'll bring up some scones!" Martha Hudson called up from her kitchen.

"Appreciated, Mrs. Hudson!" Nancy called back before she passed the main door, then closed it; the widowed exotic dancer was not aware of the true nature of the adopted native of Newcastle upon Tyne.

"How are Eleanor and the others settling in?" Sherlock asked as John made tea for the transformed liner now known on Yiziba as the Ursine Speedster of the Hills, _**Carpi-tuto**_ ("_**Carpathia**_").

"Thank God for the telepathy that took the place of our wireless when we were steel ships," Nancy noted as she sat, also angling herself to ensure she didn't disturb her host's current meditation. Having worked for the effectively most powerful man in the British government since her rebirth as a shipgirl and Gifting around the same time the German destroyer KMS _Z1 Leberecht Maass_ became Lieselotte Maaß, the spiritual adopted daughter of her most famous captain had found it very easy to adjust to life in the second decade of the Twenty-first Century. "Since Professor Ballard and so many others have visited _Titanic_'s wreck site since she was first found in '85, Eleanor's taking to things like computers and cellular phones and all that rot quite easily. As for the others..."

Her voice trailed off as footfalls from outside heralded the arrival of the landlady with a plate of scones. Small chat was exchanged as Mrs. Hudson served everyone; the widow of a mobster/drug runner who had been executed in Florida for two counts of murder knew that Nancy Rostron worked for her tenant's older brother Mycroft in the government, but didn't know her exact duties. As soon as the older woman left, Nancy took a breath before nodding as John gave her some tea. "Thank you, Doctor. As for the others, little Gwenaëlle is just the eager beaver for your brother. Charlene's going to spend time with the Canadians at the Square to be accredited as a non-traditional healer. Sarah..."

Here, the transformed Cunard liner paused, shaking her head. "What about her?" John asked.

"She wants to go visit someone by Hyde Park later today, Doctor," Nancy explained. "Wouldn't explain why. Orphaned chap named Yorick Garvey; he was originally from the East End in town. He's the one who taught Sarah, Charlene and Gwenaëlle how to properly fly after Charlene came back home..."

"Don't recognize the name," Sherlock noted. "Battle name?"

"_**Centennial**_. Flying strongman."

"Did Sarah learn his tag line?"

A shake of the head responded. The term "tag line" was used to mark the sobriquet used by Named natives of the World of the Forge to describe themselves, like "Trickster of the Show" did Tariko Katabarbe or "Goddess Who Walks Among Men" did Kasuga Ayumu. "Sarah never got it..."

"John?"

John sighed as he flipped open his personal laptop, powering on the machine. "Right. Lucky thing Yotsuba gave me that list," he breathed out as he went into his documents files to draw up a spreadsheet containing known battle names of various lines that had existed on Yiziba since the Dawn of Power; as the Master Interrogator, _**Nyuosyo'o**_ ("_**Bleachtaire**_"), Tariko's younger half-sister Yotsuba Dunn — a personal friend and once-student of the Holmes brothers and the younger brother's current flatmate — compiled the list for the consulting detective to reference whenever necessary.

"'Centennial'..." he repeated as he did a word search. "Alright, native name goes _**Byator'be-mimtumim**_. Tag line is 'Power of Legions'..." A snort escaped the Afghanistan vet. "Pretty arrogant-sounding..."

"Team?"

"Yotsuba marked '**HSKB**' beside the name."

That made the detective's eyes widen as he took seconds to absorb that bit of data, then he slipped his hand into his pocket to pull out his cell phone. "Mycroft, it's Sherlock," he called into it when the other end answered. "We've got a situation. It's the one Yotsuba and all the others fear."

Both Nancy and John blinked with understandable confusion as they gazed on Sherlock...

* * *

_**The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei  
**_**Side Story: **_**Unending League United Kingdom: The Fall of Gashleycrumb  
**_by Regina Magia and Fred Herriot

Based on _The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei_, created by Fred Herriot.

Inspired by _The Gashlycrumb Tinies_, written by Edward Gorey.

C&C by Rose Ash.

Based on characters and situations from _Love Hina_ and _Mahō __Sensei Negima_, created by Akamatsu Ken; _The Seventh Carrier_, written by Peter Albano; _Azumanga Daiō_, created by Azuma Kiyohiko; _Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter_, written by Seth Grahame-Smith; _Hellsing_, created by Hirano Kōta; _Kantai Collection_, created by Kadokawa Games; _Zenkoku Seifuku Bishōjo Grand Prix_, created by Lyceen; characters created by World Wrestling Entertainment and its predecessor organizations, founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt; _Sherlock_, created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (based on _Sherlock Holmes_, created by Arthur Conan Doyle); _Sweet Valley High_, created by Francine Pascal; _Harry Potter_, created by Joanna K. Rowling; _Danganronpa_, created by Spike Chunsoft; _Urusei Yatsura_ and _Ranma 1/2_, created by Takahashi Rumiko; _Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu_ and its sequels, written by Tanigawa Nagaru; _Sister Princess_, created by Tenhiro Naoto and Kimino Sakurako; _normalman_, created by Jim Valentino; _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, created by Joss Whedon; and _Stargate SG-1_, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner.

Also including characters and situations from _Urusei Yatsura: The Senior Year_, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot.

* * *

_**Note: **__This story occurs shortly after the events depicted in the latter part of the main story, shortly after the events depicted in the fourteenth omake, _Reborn From the Deep_. The initial draft of this work was written by Regina Magia, while I expanded and deepened the plot, plus began crossing in other characters to make it merge with the timeline of the main story._

* * *

_**London, on Baywater Road overlooking Hyde Park in the City of Westminster, the Monday after Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth, an hour after breakfast (Tōkyō **__**time: Supper)...**_

"There they go," remarked Ida Saint Clair as she crossed her arms, a lethal smile on her face while she and her friends watched the scene on the front courtyard play out. "Off to prison for life."

Five metres away, the screaming director of the Gashleycrumb Children's House, one of the last true orphanages in the United Kingdom, was being dragged off the grounds of the long-converted manor home for some forgotten noble family. Seeing this, the teens standing around the raven-haired Slavic-like fourth form honours student at the Westminster Academy on Harrow Road grinned as they heard the endless stream of profanity escape Tobias Lestrange's lips just before he was forced into one of the police cruisers sent by New Scotland Yard to have him transported to a waiting jail cell.

While the nearby crowd of reporters and photographers being cordoned off by bobbies continued to shout questions at the man in the centre of a huge scandal concerning the operation of Gashleycrumb and the fate of many of its residents over the last decade, Yorick Garvey snorted as he reached around his girlfriend's torso to draw her close. "Pity they don't hang people anymore," the dusky-skinned native of the East End mused as he and Ida exchanged looks before they tenderly kissed. Given what was happening, the residents were excused from school for a week while people from both the offices of the Secretaries of State for Education and for Health and Social Care went over the old manor house with fine-toothed combs to learn what happened to over a hundred children ranging from preschool to teen years within the orphanage's walls. "Doubt the judges at the Old Bailey will take lightly to people who neglect kids and don't report their deaths so they can keep getting government funding."

"Not to mention most folks already in jail," Ida dryly noted, her eyes glittering with anticipation. "Most 'honest' crooks don't give a fucking shit when it comes to baby-killers."

Hearing that comment, Amy Wall found that she couldn't disagree with either of her friends. She personally had long lost count of how many children met unfortunate ends — from a fatal fall down the stairs to lethal _**alcohol poisoning**_ of all things! — while the staff literally paid almost NO attention to them, covering up such tragedies in order to continue receiving welfare support from the government. Had things happened differently for twenty-six of those residents, the people now gleefully watching the small group of caretakers being led away in handcuffs could have become victims as well.

Back in the summer, the daughter of the second richest family residing in an old fish canning town in California came through Britain on her normal trip abroad to get away from the drudgery of Sweet Valley. Staying in Oxford, Lila Fowler had the fortune to come across Prudence O'Hara and Úna Lurie while the third form girls were in town meeting relatives. After Prue and Úna were saved from some idiot magical when the Living Nuclear Reaction, _**Tarutote**_ ("_**Cyclotron**_"), used her powers to atomize the fool as he attempted to use the Imperius to have his way with them, they learned of the Yizibajohei and moves to protect Earth from aliens like the Urusians who "invaded" the planet the previous fall.

Over the weekend as personal guests of the Fowler family in one of Oxford's most posh hotels, Lila was able to extract some of the horror stories concerning Gashleycrumb from Prue and Úna, including the death of the former's boyfriend from _**lye**_ poisoning of all things a year before. After hearing nightmarish tale after nightmarish tale from the visibly-depressed middle school sophomores, the computer software heiress was quick to make them an offer, one both natives of Oxfordshire were happy to take.

Before they returned to Westminster, Prue had become the Swamp Ratel of the West, _**Nekrodikeo**_ ("_**Honey Badger**_")...while Úna became the Shrinking Dynamo of the Islands, _**R'buosyuo**_ ("_**Pixie**_").

The first publicly known members of the most feared — and by far the LARGEST! — battle team of metahumans to rise on Yiziba during the Dawn of Power.

_**Hor'betyuo-simnie Kuotyo'o-bier'be**_...

The _**Unending League of Super-Soldiers**_!

To say Lila was quite stunned by such Giftings was an understatement.

After all, as it was ALWAYS said on Yiziba...

_**Wherever the League walks, whole PLANETS tremble!**_

It began from there...

* * *

_**New Scotland Yard on Broadway (a half-kilometre south of east from Buckingham Palace), an hour later...**_

"Filthy muggles...!"

Shuddering as he found himself wishing yet again to have the power his younger brothers were given at birth to free himself from this place, Tobias Lestrange tried to flex his arms to loosen the restraints keeping him tied to a chair in an interrogation room in one of the basements of the Metropolitan Police Service headquarters complex. It was one of the ones which had been warded by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the dispossessed eldest son of the late Viscount Augustus Lestrange of Barnet — one of the Dark Lord's supporters in the original Knights of Walpurgis, predecessor organization to the Death Eaters — was warned by one of the bobbies who dragged him here before he was tied down to await questioning. The others who had been arrested with him were normal people with no blood affiliation to the magical realms. All that happened to them was that they had been potioned by Lestrange's true employers among the pureblood gentry of wizarding Britain to ignore the disappearances and deaths of Gashleycrumb residents over the previous decade and more since Voldemort's fighters openly moved against the filth on both sides of the magical security divide.

"Good morning, Mister Lestrange."

Hearing that chilly voice, Lestrange turned to look...

...then blinked in curiosity on seeing a very dapper man in a Savile Row suit step out of the shadows, gazing upon him as if the dispossessed heir of one of wizarding Britain's most prominent families was a toad about to be dissected for science class in school. As Lestrange then shuddered in indignation on being gazed upon THAT way, the newcomer moved to sit in front of him across the table from the former director of Gashleycrumb, his lips twitching into something of an amused smile.

"I should thank you, Mister Lestrange," he then stated. "Not only for giving my younger brother a lot of work as he helps investigate the crimes that befell your charges since you answered your late father's request for normal sex-slaves to sate the needs of Mister Riddle's fighters, you also have benefited Her Majesty greatly by allowing the United Kingdom to tap into a remarkable resource that will protect the Realm and her interests for many years to come." His smile then turned icy. "I'm Mycroft Holmes, Her Majesty's Master of the Royal Specialized Warfare Fencibles. Since you've been living in the normal world..." He then nodded as Lestrange turned very pale. "Ah, you do understand, don't you?"

Shuddering as horror stories his parents told him about the battles between the War Hawks and the Übermenschen Gruppe in Europe during the Wars of Liberation replayed in his mind — many of those fights having occurred in magical districts across Britain, which caused more damage per capita than anything any warrior of Gellert Grindelwald's Magische Reichsarmee EVER did! — Lestrange hissed, "So what, _**Master**_ Holmes?! Do you think the Dark Lord will allow those muggle freaks to try to dominate the _**true**_ masters of this land?! I may be without magic, but I know my loyalties! He'll lead...!"

"He was killed thirty-three hours ago in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic due to the backlash of the _**Praeda Bellica**_ benediction unleashed on him AND ALL HIS FOLLOWERS by the Duchess of Kyme Eau, Matriarch of the Very Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin..." — here, the true heart of Her Majesty's Government gave him a ghoulish smile as Lestrange gaped in stunned disbelief — "...as so confirmed by blood tests done per treaty with the International Mercantile Bank of Gringotts.

"Among those who were rendered nimmibs were your brothers Rodolphus and Rabastan, who will soon be sentenced to life imprisonment in 'A' Block at Her Majesty's Prison _**Gonebren**_." Ignoring the horrified squawk from Lestrange on hearing the name of That Place, Mycroft added, "By the way, you don't have Cornelius Fudge to hide behind anymore. Once Her Grace the Duchess dealt with her distant cousin, she used her reserve powers as granted her in the House of Lords Wizengamot to FIRE that dolt! As of this time, Baron Xavier Leolin is the acting Minister for Magic thanks to the fact that Lady Alecto Carrow — who, if you don't know, replaced Professor Dumbledore as Chief Witch of the Wizengamot after he was deposed in the summer — was imprisoned in Gonebren..." — again, Mycroft ignored the prisoner's frightened squawk on hearing That damnable Name again — "...for torturing her nieces with Unforgivables, thus has been legally stripped of all hope of maintaining such a post. Elections for the new minister will be held sometime this week."

Lestrange shuddered as he tried not to succumb from such a waterfall of revelations. "You _**lie**_...!"

He then croaked as shadows seemed to writhe and change before a raven-haired woman stepped out of them, dressed in a sleeveless black jumpsuit with a turtleneck halter top design that displayed all the curves in her teenage body very well. "Oh, my..." she trilled as her stormy grey eyes focused on the prisoner. "Is this the abusive idiot that effectively delivered headaches to all of us on Yiziba by helping bring part of the _**Unending League **_back, Master Holmes?" she asked with an amused voice as she placed something the size of a paperback novel on the desk before the Master of the Fencibles.

"Indeed he is, Your Ladyship," Mycroft answered before he stared at the prisoner. "I doubt you'll know of her, Mister Lestrange, but this is Her Ladyship, Earl Countess Pansy Parkinson of Keerford. She has just formally ascended to her position when her father was arrested very early in the morning after being rendered a nimmib by Her Grace in the same incident that saw your brothers rendered nimmibs. I strongly doubt that you might know of your sister-in-law's daughter with the late Mister Riddle, but if you actually do know of her, know that she will NEVER inherit your family seat in the House of Lords Wizengamot since she is technically a _**bastard child**_." As the level of confusion on Lestrange's face deepened, the Master of the Fencibles smiled. "A much more worthy heir to the seat was discovered and claimed the family ring shortly after your father's passing four years ago. Due to your brothers' imprisonment in Her Majesty's Prison Azkaban, they were in no position to contest that claim."

Despite himself, Lestrange demanded, "Who?!"

"That would be myself, mein Herr."

Hearing that woman's voice with its rich Westphalian accent, Lestrange turned to his left...

...then gargled as a woman stepped into the light, dressed in the British Army's khaki Number 2 service dress uniform with the kilt and accoutrements of the London Scottish on her collars, buttons and glengarry bonnet, she slipping an ornate wand under the sleeve of her jacket. Gazing at her, Lestrange was quick to note the medals and qualification badges on her jacket and slung around her neck were German from the era of the Wars of Liberation: The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds wrapped around her neck alongside the Orden Pour le Merité Magique, the first class Iron Cross on her left breast pocket, the undress ribbon of the second class Iron Cross tucked in under the top button of her jacket, the undress ribbon of the long service award for members of the Magische Reichsarmee above the left pocket, the qualification badge for a military combat witch in silver above that ribbon and the Wound Badge in gold to the lower left of the first class Iron Cross.

Once he read the word on her black name tag...

"_**YOU'RE DEAD!**_" he screeched.

The woman with the long wavy blonde hair tied in a simple ponytail at the base of her skull gazed dispassionately at him, her blue eyes seemingly boring right into Lestrange's very soul to find what was there VERY wanting. "If I was dead, mein Cousin..." she began, her words dripping with disgust, "...I wouldn't be able to wear THIS, would I?" she then asked as she held out her right hand.

Lestrange gaped at the beautiful family ring which was on this dark ghost's finger. Said now marked Andrea Slaed of Dortmund in Nordrhein-Westfalen, 1938 alumnus of the Nibelung School of Magic near Worms, captain in the Magical Army of the Greater German Realm, band mistress of the _**Schwarze Mädchen Brigade**_ — who should have DIED at the Battle of Nurmengard in the summer of 1945! — as the new matriarch of the Most Noble House of Lestrange and the Viscounty of Barnet!

A horrified scream then escaped him...

* * *

_**Gashleycrumb House, noon...**_

"So...you think I'm good enough for WWE, Mister Austin?"

Hearing that question from Basil Ashbery, the native of Edna near the Gulf of Mexico coast of Texas who was the current incarnation of the Lethal Viper of the South, _**Tuone'e**_ (the "_**Rattlesnake**_"), chuckled as he reached over to squeeze the shoulder of the balding muscular fifth form student who had become the current incarnation of the Slashing Bruin, _**Tona**_ ("_**Orso**_"). "Yeah, kid, you got the stuff!" Steve Austin stated, which made the orphaned native of Rochester in Kent grin. "Just got to learn a ton of self-control if you ever want to do what some of us in the WWE do when they're Gifted. I'll introduce you to the Shield sometime. They can show you some meditation tricks they used in NXT."

"Cor! The _**Shield**_ are Gifted?!" Ernest Wilder exclaimed, his eyes wide. The dark-haired native of Hammersmith in London itself was the current incarnation of the Mighty Prince of the East, _**Saku**_ ("_**Rajah**_"). His Gift gave him mid-level FISS capabilities atop excellent leadership skills inherited from his first-self, a ruling crown prince of the eastern equatorial continent who had defended his land from invading metahumans in the Dawn of Power before he joined forces with the most powerful battle group to ever live on Yiziba. Of course, many of his friends soon noted that Ernest — who was as pure an Anglo-Saxon as there could be — had taken well to Indian cuisine after his Gifting. Then again, many knew that the homeland of the Mighty Prince, Ha'asaka, shared many cultural traits with the Maurya Empire that existed on the Subcontinent a century before Christ. "Love to train with them!"

"You'll get the chance, kid!" Steve promised as everyone moved to stream out of the gymnasium to head to the main dining hall and get a meal, making the younger metahumans both grin.

As they walked and chatted, the Texas Rattlesnake could only shake his head as he tried not to scowl on seeing the dilapidated condition of the orphanage that had first attracted Lila Fowler's attention back in the summer. Knowing Tobias Lestrange was the nimmib brother of two of the ass-kissers who followed that death cheater Voldemort that just got put down by Thérèse Peverell, the fact that so many kids died or disappeared from this place made a very cruel, grotesque sort of sense.

Cursing himself for being so utterly desensitized to such a concept even with his upbringing on Earth, Steve shook his head to concentrate on the here and now.

Still, it was quite hard given the primary downside of being Gifted.

The knowledge of the vast breadth of his adopted planet's history from that apocalyptic age to today had become the wrestler's thanks to his unintentional Gifting five years before, shortly after his referee duties at WrestleMania 23 in Detroit. With that came the bitter knowledge that child rape, child prostitution and child slavery had been a thing in the years before the Dawn of Power across much of Yiziba. Ultimately, it was because of the memories of such abuse among victims who later became the first generation of the Named that the tradition of getting children Gifted to defend themselves at the youngest age possible first rose when the Show got started in earnest after the Starvation Times.

Worse, the first generation of the Unending League of Super-Soldiers had been some of the most hurt victims of that abuse thanks to their being experimented by government agencies seeking to create metahuman combat forces before they broke free and went on a worldwide rampage.

Reflecting on that, many on Yiziba soon understood what drove the first generation of the League to band together and become such a powerful force for both good and ill on the World of the Forge.

Given how much sheer POWER was welded by the kids who had been Gifted after Prudence O'Hara and Úna Lurie had met the current incarnation of the Living Nuclear Reaction, Steve didn't doubt for a moment that if anyone from the magical enclaves administered by that pack of morons calling themselves a "ministry" stepped out of line, a mud-stomp of EPIC proportions would result.

The sooner Rose Potter and her allies could make inroads with the group of orphans at Gashleycrumb to keep tempers down and prevent bystanders from being hurt if someone lost it, the better.

Fortunately, something was coming soon to help ease the transition...

* * *

_**The storage rooms in the basement...**_

"This is where the vanished children were teleported off to the allies of Lestrange's brothers?"

"Exactly," Zinnia Schubert answered as she crouched beside the famous consulting detective whose older brother would be the effective "commander" of Britain's metahumans if so called by the Crown to war. "After I was Gifted, I used my powers to scout around the place to see where all the kids were disappearing to. Once I noticed a lot of the staff seemed drugged for some reason — yet saw that the normal run of hallucinogens and other brain-altering medications were absent from the infirmary — concluding there had to be a magical side to things was easy. Especially after I learned the meaning behind the name 'Lestrange', then visited the Ministry after that death cheater Riddle broke his mates out of Azkaban on All Hallow's Eve. Thank God for Miss Hasegawa." Here, the dusky-skinned fourth form student with South Asian ancestry despite her German family name who was the current incarnation of the Stealthy Sleuth, _**R'bedirim**_ ("_**Blacklight**_"), shrugged. "Followed that squib bastard into this room with one kid on Remembrance Day, then saw him teleported off; that's what convinced us it was time to go finally shut the arses down. Couldn't trace where the poor boy went, though."

"Yes, the magicals can be very annoying on occasion," Sherlock Holmes stated as he passed his fingers over the dusty floor, relaxing as he felt for anomalies. "Yes, here's the evidence of portkey use. Magicals don't realize that when you displace so much mass in any form of teleportation, it causes a vacuum in the immediate area until the air pressure stabilizes. That shifts dust around..."

"How can you tell it was a portkey and not side-along apparition, Sherlock?"

That was Elaine Savage, the auror of the DMLE who had been sent to the orphanage to monitor what was happening and ensure any links to the Death Eaters wouldn't cause too much curiosity towards discovering the existence of magic...which struck Sherlock as an utterly stupid waste of time since one of the members of the _**War Hawks**_ was openly known to be magical and there had been magical incidents in Tomobiki and Nerima over the last year, especially given what happened to the person now known as Hayashi Kanami! Given the administrator of Gashleycrumb was the nimmib sibling of the Lestrange brothers and that many horribly abused muggle children were being found in the mansions of those Death Eaters who had fallen early the previous morning, Amelia Bones was quick to persuade Sherlock' brother to allow her people to be present. Fortunately, Savage was a half-blood and had long come to respect the sleuth who lived at 221B Baker Street in Marylebone near Regent's Park.

Hearing that question the alumnus of Hufflepuff from the NEWT class of 1982 who lost her normal-born father to Voldemort's people, Sherlock gazed at the reborn detective whose first-self hailed from the Isle of Luoridi off the coast of the western equatorial continent, one of the few democracies on Yiziba before it all went to hell. "Explain it to her," he bade before moving to examine the rest of the room.

As Sally Donovan muttered something — which earned the sergeant a disgusted look from Savage — Zinnia's dark eyes rolled. "Alright, Elaine, it's simple. Think of what you NAME that particular act!"

Savage blinked, then she repeated, "Side-along..." Her eyes then widened. "Side. Beside." Her hands came up to form a space about a foot apart before she clapped her hands. "Dust would shift inwards as if an elevator door was closing. Portkeys..." A laugh escaped her. "Portkeys are all-around spells!"

"Exactly!" Sherlock stated with an approving nod. "Even if you don't have Alastor's delightful artificial eye, Elaine, always keep a watch on the floor if you can't make use of the tracking spells you have to find out what happened. What else can you deduce from the movement of dust?"

That made the auror think for a moment before she nodded. "Size of who was taken away. A child is smaller than an adult. But how can you determine that when a portkey is used, Sherlock...?"

Her voice then trailed off. Sherlock smirked, waving to the place on the floor which he examined minutes before. As Savage joined him, Zinnia grinned before she walked out of the room, not sparing Donovan a glance even if the urge to deck the mouthy bitch flowed through the veins of the Stealthy Sleuth. Walking up the stairs to the main reception hall, she soon spotted her target. "Doctor Watson!"

Sherlock's flatmate perked, then he looked over before smiling as the native of Catcombe near Somerton in Somerset came over to join him. Both then headed into the cafeteria. The cooks were members of 167 Catering Support Regiment in the British Army's Royal Logistics Corps, who had come from their barracks in Lincolnshire to prepare meals for the orphans over the next week; the House's cooks had been swept up and were at New Scotland Yard facing a tonne of charges, including TWENTY counts of murder via food poisoning. Proving that would definitely be easy since Zinnia's boyfriend Neville Wolf had become the current incarnation of the Master Programmer, _**Tamser'ba**_ ("_**Admin**_"); he was a master technopath who could easily retrieve lost and erased data of any sort with terrible ease. As soon as he had been Gifted at the start of fall, the native of Hackney in London had been quick to used his abilities to fully subvert the orphanage's security systems to his own control.

"Sherlock's interested in you," the retired Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon warned as they drew trays, then waited to be served in the wake of some off-duty police officers. "You're actually not so different from another Gifted person we know, one of the sisters of Tariko Katabarbe to be exact."

Zinnia chuckled. "Yotsuba Dunn, you mean? She's Bleachtaire."

"Same person," John Watson said, nodding thanks to the corporal who was in charge of the serving line before he guided the Somertonian metahuman detective/shadow weaver over to an empty table close to the windows. As they sat and began to nibble on the food, John spared a glance at the television by the windows, one of the few modern appliances he had seen since he came to this dreary place. ITV News was on, showing replays of the recent destruction of many parts of P'yŏng'yang in North Korea, such having been transmitted thanks to the Voice of the Great Show of Life, _**Bo'odurba**_ ("_**Windtalker**_").

"You ever met her?" he then asked, thumbing the television.

She perked. "Who?"

"Miss Asakura?"

Zinnia shook her head. "No, not really. If you don't know this, being part of the Unending League will put some stigma on us, Doctor. We don't want to worry every damned metahuman on the planet that we've gone through the casting change and allowed our wing of the League to return. It scares people."

"Doctor Destructo, you mean?"

"Yes, sir," the would-be detective breathed out as she considered what to say further, then she sighed. "If we've been allowed to do casting changes into what we are now, he or she is DEFINITELY back. Especially now that Yotsuba's brother is Rake." As John gazed in curiosity at her, Zinnia smirked. "The first incarnation of Rake was one of Destructo's Chosen, Doctor. One of the people who got themselves Gifted thanks to the guidance of the third incarnation of the Doctor to show normal people how to protect themselves by becoming metahumans. That got the Freedom Parade going, which launched the first fight scenes of the Dawn of Power in countries like Kutotuto and Taletuto."

The retired surgeon blinked as he considered that before he grimly nodded. "Your equals of Nazi Germany and Imperial Russia if I recall from what Yotsuba told me about those times." He shook his head, then turned to see the destruction of the massive Ryugyŏng Hotel in Pot'ong-gang, about seven hundred metres southwest of where the captured American Cold War spy ship USS _Pueblo_ — now a shipgirl named Marlene Bucher-Flanagan — had been moored close to the Victorious War Museum. "Oh, dear! Looks like the Yank shipgirls had a tonne of fun," he noted.

"Pity we couldn't get in on that!"

Heads turned as Caitlyn Strictland walked over to sit beside her friend. The current incarnation of the Slaughtering Axewoman, _**Ruobo**_ ("_**Labrys**_"), was one of the most powerful of the newly-constituted wing of the Unending League living in London; she hailed from Swansea. She had become pre-Gifted a week before she was taken from Gashleycrumb by Voldemort's supporters, then was imprisoned in a hidden camp close to her hometown where a platoon's worth of Russian ice giants had been secretly quartered, sufficiently far from the sea to prevent whatever had caused the Whitby Werewolf Massacre before Hallowe'en from getting to them. One lieutenant of the late Fenrir Greyback wanted to turn Kate into a werewolf to begin rebuilding the packs who had been slaughtered by the just-reborn Lieselotte Maaß. When he scratched her on attempting to rape her, the Gifting began and said werewolf was physically torn in half by her bare hands before she used her just-recovered battleaxe — such weapons were automatically stored in the Weaponeer's dimensionally-displaced armoury in the same pocket universe as the Doll House when their owners were not alive; those devices were always teleported back to the new incarnations of their last owners after Giftings — to hack the giants to bits!

Of course, the British Ministry of Magic didn't find out what happened outside Swansea a week ago until this very morning when Kate passed on what she did to Elaine Savage to be eventually relayed to Amelia Bones for further action by the DMLE and other parts of the Ministry of Magic.

"Why didn't you fly there?" John asked the Swansean fifth form as she sipped her tea. "Captain Hyde..." — there, he spoke of the Black Dragon, the just-transformed American battleship USS _New Jersey_, now Captain Kathy Hyde of the United States Naval Reserve — "...did call a _**public**_ fight scene."

"What if whoever sent those monsters against the shipgirls decided to do some distance attacks like what Hitler tried to make his own Übermenschen do on North America that needed the War Hawks to cull them before we could hit the Continent on D-Day?" Kate wondered in return.

That made John blink before he grimly nodded...

* * *

_**The outdoor swimming pool by the back porch...**_

"Right, on three, girls! Three, two, one...PULL!"

Four sets of hands instantly yanked apart the large crack that had been cut into the swimming pool floor by Olive Verburg's battle spear. That yank also pulled up a considerable layer of dirt that that helped separate the pool from a chamber which had been detected by Olive's boyfriend Hector Eliot...though the current incarnation of the Guiding Thinker of the North, _**Kuodo**_ ("_**Luminary**_"), hadn't been able to scan inside that chamber, much less find a way to get into it from elsewhere on the grounds. "Alright, lads!" Greg Lestrade barked out from nearby. "Let's get the excavator over so we can clear away this mess, then we'll let Miss Verburg go at it again with her spear to see what's there!"

Hearing that command, one of the bobbies who had been standing guard over the back lawn nodded before he turned to wave at a nearby excavator. As the driver guided the machine over to dip his claw-tipped bucket into the hole made in the pool floor, the people in there quickly climbed or elevated themselves clear. Of course, the four women who helped pull apart the pool floor weren't any of the orphans living here who had been Gifted. Despite their being in form-fitting battle suits, they wore over their revealing tops dark blue V-neck sweaters with cloth shoulder patches and epaulettes derived from the Number 3C general duty rig worn by members of the Royal Navy, they bearing slip-ons displaying the rank of commander. As soon as the last of them were clear, Lestrade waved the excavator in.

"Two metres down, Inspector," Hector stated from a bench that his girlfriend had hand-carried over from the porch to allow the Guiding Thinker to do his work with some hand-made scanners. "Don't see anything that might be a trap as our friend's digging down. Wish we had a geokinetic in our croup...!"

Lestrade nodded as he moved to sit beside the native of Kensington, waving the four women who had helped tear open the pool deck over to the other bench that Olive brought over. "It doesn't feel right," Charlene Smith-Bartlett confessed as she took a seat, followed by her sisters Sarah and Eleanor while Gwenaëlle Laniece remained standing, hovering close to the transformed Olympic-class liners to be ready and serve them when asked. "Something about what's under that pool..."

"Magical?" Lestrade wondered.

"Most likely. Quite smart to get people over here who were read in on THAT little secret, Inspector," Hector finished as his brown eyes twinkled, readouts appearing on the lenses of his goggles while he took in information from several scanners in his hand and in his bedroom.

"Well, instant Director Bones warned us this was formerly a magical mansion whose owners died out during their side of the bloody Spanish Armada, it was the best thing to do," the native of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset whispered. Even if people working this case DID know of magic, the habit of keeping one's voice lowered when speaking of that topic to not get the Obliviators out from under Northumberland Avenue to do their work was a hard habit to shake off.

"What family was it, Inspector?" Sarah Smith asked as she looked over.

A shake of the head responded. "Records were lost during the Second World War when Captain Slaed's friends raided the Ministry to destroy that loyalty stone thing that hurt too many in the old colonies." He paused at the sounds of the bucket ripping into the torn concrete of the pool floor deafened people before carrying on, "Doubt the captain would be able to give us answers, but I'm glad her friends are willing to help keep an eye on the kids while they're either fostered off or move on with their lives."

Silence fell as the excavator continued to dig, ripping up the rest of the pool floor to get to its goal. Watching that happen, Hector blinked before he looked at Olive. The Dutch-descent native of Chalfont Saint Giles near the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire was standing tense and ready, her gloved hand gripping her battle spear as if she was expecting someone to attack right away. The third of the group of orphans to be Gifted after Prudence O'Hara and Úna Lurie a few weeks after the start of the new school year, Olive became the Raging Hoplite of the West, _**Damnir'be**_ ("_**Ascalon**_"). Once she was armed and empowered — Olive was an upper-level FISS, capable of giving Yorick Garvey a good and decent match — she was quick to cause several accidents with food shipments that came in from questionable grocers; over the last year, many orphans had quickly noted that when certain types of food were brought into Gashleycrumb, one or more of their number would either die or disappear. Sadly for some of the people Olive and her friends wanted to save, those who were Gifted couldn't make a real impact until Hector Eliot and Neville Wolf had been empowered.

While Olive had yet to do what Kate Strictland did when the native of Swansea was Gifted...!

"Greg!"

Lestrade perked, then he looked over his shoulder, a delighted smile crossing his face. "Kingsley! Dora!" He then breathed out on seeing the third auror who had just apparated in. "Master Auror Moody! Thank bloody God YOU came here! We got us quite the mystery here!"

"Something you need looked at 'special', eh, Lestrade?!" Alastor Moody cackled as he marched over to take the normal detective inspector's hand in his own. The native of the magical side of Edinburgh — given his paranoia when it came to potential threats against his life due to his chilling success tracking down dark magicals, nearly NO ONE knew where the man now lived — was dressed in modern normal clothes which definitely passed muster in Lestrade's eyes. That had been courtesy of Yotsuba Dunn, who over the last few years had gone after dozens of aurors and other Ministry of Magic personnel in the wake of her Gifting as the Master Interrogator to get them to "dress PROPER"! Over time, the half-Japanese native of London was effectively adopted by instructors in the Corps of Law Aurors as a "special lecturer on muggle interactions"; one had to pass by her scrutiny to be seen as qualified whenever dealing with incidents beyond the magical enclaves. "Any of the kids here have the right skills to see inside this damned thing?" he then asked as he waved towards the wrecked pool.

"Sadly, I'm not too familiar with magical energy matrices to penetrate the walls of whatever is under the pool, Master Auror," Hector stated as he stood up, waving Moody over to stand close to the edge of the pool. As the soon-to-retire Edinburger gave the pool and the ground underneath a detailed look with his enhanced artificial eye, Kingsley Shacklebolt headed into the orphanage building to get updates from Elaine Savage. Nymphadora Tonks was quick to position herself close to Lestrade...though the metamorphmagus junior auror had seen the scowling look on Olive's face, giving her a wide birth on noting she was armed and looked ready to skewer someone with that spear of hers.

"Tell me what you do know, lad," Moody commanded.

As the Guiding Thinker pointed out various things he had been able to detect on the grounds while the excavator cleared more earth from the now-wrecked pool, the youngest of the Olympic-class liners was quick to peer intently at the elderly auror, her own empathy reaching out to scan his scarred and ravaged body. Her brown eyes then widened in horror as the sheer scale of what the poor man before her had endured in his career as a law enforcement officer; thanks to the knowledge and memories of the doctors, nurses and other medical personnel that had served on HMHS _Britannic_ during her brief time of life as a ship, Charlene was able to detect and comprehend every damned wound Alastor Moody had received. Before any sort of conscious thought could muster in her brain to make her stop and think, the transformed hospital ship was on her feet and moving towards the Edinburger.

Moody was quick to sense her approach, he turning around to gaze her way. "What is it, lass...?"

His voice was cut off as Charlene's fingertips landed over the bridge of his nose, then they GLOWED! Before either Sarah or Eleanor could lunge over and pull their sister away from the man, a surprised squawk escaped Moody as a torrent of quite soothing energy ripped through his body from that contact, making his scars and the empty pit where his left eye had once been also glow.

"Bloody HELL...!" Tonks croaked out as that power seemed to clear up the scars on her instructor's face, making him seem a decade younger in the virtual blink of an eye. "She's a HEALER...?!"

"Former hospital ship, Miss Tonks," Lestrade stated.

That made the native of Petersfield near Portsmouth in Hampshire gape...

"_**DAMN!**_"

"Alastor!" Tonks gasped as she moved to keep her teacher on his feet just as he reached up and yanked out the magical eye from the now-glowing socket...

...the energy within then solidifying into a perfectly healthy normal brown eye!

"Charlene! Stop, for God's sake!" Sarah barked as she pulled her sister back from the man, who was now blinking in surprise as the reattached nerves began relaying information into his brain that perfectly matched what his artificial eye had done for him. "Are you alright, Master Auror...?!"

Moody's free hand came up. "I'm fine, lass!" he assured the raven-haired adopted native of Belfast and Alnwick before he felt his vision clear, then he focused directly on Charlene, his left eye GLOWING!

"What the bloody hell did you just do to him, Commander?!" Lestrade demanded.

"As Miss Tonks just said now, Charlene is a touch healer, Lestrade," a voice hailed from the direction of the main house, making people turn as Mycroft Holmes came over to join them, escorted by his chief aide Anthea McAllister. Nancy Rostron was also with them, now in her fighting uniform with the dark blue Navy sweater over her top. As the reborn Cunard liner exchanged polite nods with her old White Star rivals, the Master of the Fencibles gazed intently at Moody's restored eye. "Amazing! She gave you a normal eye back but allowed you to keep the abilities of your artificial one!"

"Is she trained, Mycroft?!" Moody demanded.

"Well, unless you consider the knowledge she inherited from all the doctors and other personnel who served on her when she was His Majesty's Hospital Ship _Britannic_ being 'trained', I'd say 'no', Alastor!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"'_Britannic_'...?!"

That was a wide-eyed Tonks as she gaped on the adopted native of Belfast and the isle of Kéa in the Cyclades archipelago of Greece. As Charlene gave her a sheepish smile in turn, the metamorphmagus turned to gaze on her two obvious sisters before a squeal of disbelief escaped her.

"_**TONKS!**_"

She was nearly blasted down by Moody's bellowed cry. As the others stared at him, the master auror shook his head. "Investigating crime scene first, young lady!" he snapped with the same tone of voice he used on recruits during the first day of training. "You can fan-girl over these poor lassies later!"

Snickers echoed from some of the bobbies nearby who had heard this as Tonks madly blushed in embarrassment, her head cycling through several interesting shades of colour...

* * *

_**The cafeteria, an hour later...**_

"Magically resistant?"

"Aye," Alastor Moody snarled before nodding his thanks as Zinnia Schubert handed him a cup of tea. "Damn! I have to confess, young lady, you even worked improvements in my eye when you regrew it!" he noted after doing a quick scan of the tea before sipping from it, immediately sensing the reborn HMHS _Britannic_ blush madly at that compliment. "So?! Am I still healthy, Poppy?"

A hand playfully batted his balding head of greying brown hair. "You're practically ten years younger now, Alastor!" Poppy Pomfrey declared after doing a deep scan of the auror with her own wand and magic. "If Charlene put a little more power with that touch, she could have easily regrown your leg!" She then pulled a bottle out from her first aid kit to hand to him. "Drink that."

He nodded his thanks, having scanned it immediately to see it was a combination potion with many nutrients to stabilize his internal chemistry; regardless of how good Charlene Smith-Bartlett's empathic healing powers were, the regrown tissue couldn't be conjured or grown out of simple nothingness, but other elements of Moody's body. After drinking it down, he then gazed on the transformed hospital ship. "So who exactly at Canada House is handling your healing apprenticeship, lass?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Scott Denham, Master Auror," Charlene answered.

"Forester?"

A shake of the head responded. "He's part of the Royal Canadian Air Force, though serving in the Royal Canadian Medical Service and mustered into the Specialized Warfare Regiment. An active member of Number 19 Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit. He has the same type of powers I received."

"I know Scott," Pomfrey stated as she did a final scan of the veteran of the Blood War. "Properly accredited medical and naturopathic doctor. Even trained under Professor Raeburn's friends at Watari-shima, rated a chūnin in the Tensei-ryū." As people hearing this nodded in appreciation and approval of the doctor's extracurricular educational path, she added, "You listen to everything he teaches you, Commander Smith-Bartlett. You'll be having the scarlet between your rank stripes soon enough."

Charlene's cheeks were now as red as poppies. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Alastor!"

Moody looked over before a delighted grin crossed his face. "You sure you can trust the new lass with the kids all alone, Albus?" he wondered as Albus Dumbledore, dressed in a conservative business suit with his long beard tucked under the jacket, came over to join them.

"You know the truth about Thérèse, Alastor," the headmaster of Hogwarts stated before nodding his thanks as one of the logisticans from 167 Catering Services Regiment handed him a cup of tea. "Oh, thank you, my dear! Do need a spot of that after last night." He then came over to sit by the table Moody was now occupying with Charlene and Pomfrey. "Despite all of Tom's problems, one thing that was most agreeable about his attitudes is that he saw Hogwarts as his true home. Thérèse has those feelings in spades. Besides, given the fact that our PROPER hosts are members of the Unending League of Super-Soldiers, one can't be too cautious about keeping the walls up."

"Hirosaki's granddaughter warned you of some things?"

"As did Tariko, Rose and a few others," Dumbledore stated before sipping his tea, then he looked around. "Oh, if I may ask, who exactly is the specific team leader here?"

"That would be me, Headmaster."

Everyone turned as Ida Saint Clair came up, she accompanied by Yorick Garvey. Now that the headmaster and staff of Gashleycrumb had been carted off to gaol, the Gifted orphans residing here had donned their battlesuits. As the Power of Legions, the dark-skinned East End Londoner had a white jumpsuit with bright golden boots and belt, what appeared to be a two-headed eagle in the style of the Holy Roman Empire in gold on his chest. His girlfriend had been Gifted as the Empress of the Deep Oceans, _**Imtaelem**_ ("_**Salacia**_"); the high-level hydrokinetic — it had been her who cleared out the water of the pool before people could dig around on it, sending said liquid over in a single mass to pour into the Thames — had a dark sea blue uniform with dark grey belt and boots, a dark grey sea horse-like insignia on her chest intertwined with a virtual bush of seaweed. "An honour to make your acquaintance, my dear," Dumbledore said as he rose, offering his hand. As Ida allowed him to give her hand a courtly kiss — though she blushed at such Victorian Era courtesies — he added, "I also bring greetings from Madame Warlock, Madame Thaumaturge and the members of the Cosmic Mage Guild who are currently students or staff at Hogwarts at this time. Not to mention Master Vinclozolin, Madame Silhouette and Madame Dragonheart; all three are students there as well."

Yorick crossed his arms. "That's quite surprising. While Dragonheart's as neutral as the Dragoness, Silhouette and Vinclozolin are normally heels. Can your castle stand that sort of thing, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore chuckled as they move to sit around an empty table close to where Moody was relaxing. "Pansy Parkinson and Neville Longbottom — Silhouette and Vinclozolin respectively — are more anti-faces in this incarnation, young man. You'll find them quite delightful to be with."

"Longbottom and Parkinson?" Ida repeated. "If I understand how your branch of the House of Lords works, the Longbottoms have a marquessate down on the border between Dorset and Hampshire and the Parkinsons have an earldom up in Lancaster. Given the way you people love to divide your society into 'light' and 'dark' ways of thinking, Neville would be on the light side and Pansy on the dark. We know of a Malcolm Parkinson; he was one of that death cheater's friends..."

"Pansy was long sickened by her parents' support of Voldemort, madame. Even more, she owed a Magical Life Debt to Tariko Katabarbe; Tariko saved her once from a broom riding accident a year before Pansy began attending Hogwarts. Also, Pansy is magically married to a muggleborn peer, Hermione Granger; she's the Enchantress. Thus, an alliance between her and the Mage Guild..."

The members of the Unending League sitting in the cafeteria nodded in understanding. "Makes more sense," Neville Wolf stated as he looked up from his personally-constructed laptop before sipping his tea. "Do you still have the Rittmeister's wand, Headmaster? Neither Hector nor I have been able to penetrate that whatever-it-is that's shielding that bunker or dungeon or whatever the devil that thing is under the pool." Here, the Master Programmer waved out towards the back yard.

"It's magically shielded, Albus," Moody added as the headmaster turned to gaze outside with his mage sight to see what was the issue. "Quite old and complex wards as well. Ties right into one of the ley lines that cris-cross London. Both these ladies tried to crack it open with their weapons, but couldn't scratch it." Here, he waved to both Olive Verburg and Kate Strickland in emphasis.

Seeing the menacing sharp devices in the two orphan girls' hands, Dumbledore's eyebrow arched. "Created by the Weaponeer, I believe, ladies?" he asked.

Affirming nods answered him. "Who else would our first-selves turn to after the first Weaponeer came, Headmaster?" Olive asked with a bitter smile; she had her theories about that whatever-it-was under the pool and whatever could be contained within, but hadn't said anything.

"Jim tried to change it," Kate added as he waved to a frail young man appearing to be in second form.

Dumbledore turned his mage sight to scan James Bellairs for a second to ascertain the younger fellow's abilities, then he nodded. "You can transmute matter, young man?" he asked.

"All the way to atomic transmutation...but only by physical touch, Headmaster," the native of King's Lynn in western Norfolk who was the youngest of the Gifted now residing at Gashleycrumb answered. He was the current incarnation of the Purifying Alchemist, _**Hyato-simtumlokro**_ ("_**Albedo**_"); noting that, the others of the League currently in the cafeteria then recalled that the famous "leader of the light" who had dealt with Gellert Grindelwald during World War Two himself was an alchemy master who had studied under the long-lived Nicolas Flamel. "When I tried to shift the state of the roof of that chamber to make it breakable, I felt too much ebony mesonium shielding the material from me. I don't know who on Earth forged that, but whoever he or she was, they were either geniuses or lunatics."

"Or most likely both. So we need ebony mesonium to fight ebony mesonium." With that, the elderly arch-mage finished his tea, then drew out his wand, nodding in understanding. "Well, let's see if whoever created this had the ability to defy the power of Rittmeister von Taserich."

With that, Jim got up from his chair to escort Dumbledore outside, with some of the others following...

* * *

_**The outdoor swimming pool, minutes later...**_

"Kōchō-sensei!"

Albus Dumbledore blinked on hearing that cheerful voice with its mix of Hichiku Kyūshū Japanese and Tâioân Bânlâm-gú Min Chinese accents, then he looked up as a brown-haired figure in a white jumpsuit with dark blue belt and boots flew down from the sky, having approached the scene from the north. "Ah, Commander Yuhara! I thought you'd be heading back to Japan with Tariko!"

Landing, Yuhara Yukiko giggled as she scratched the back of her head. As people stared at the reborn eighth of the Kagerō-class "cruiser-type" destroyers, the woman now known on Yiziba as the Typhoon Blizzard, _**Rikebo'o**_ ("_**Yukikaze**_") bowed her head. "Yukikaze is sorry, Kōchō-sensei, but Shirē wanted Yukikaze to come here to give a message to the members of the Unending League who are based here so that Shirē's sister Yotsuba-shirē wouldn't bug her about learning all of the League's secrets!"

Hearing that, Ida Saint Clair walked up, offering her hand. "No doubt, Miss Katabarbe wants to keep the fight scenes to a minimum," the native of Sunderland near Newcastle upon Tyne mused as Yukiko formally saluted her, then took her hand, conserving her first generation battle doll-enhanced strength as she shook it. "I'll get Hector to compile a list of our battle group to pass on to Miss Katabarbe; you've been probably told why we refused to communicate with either Miss Asakura or..."

«_**Yukikaze...?**_»

Yukiko and the civilian shipgirls who had been helping with the excavation of the swimming pool perked. "I heard that!" Sarah Smith called out. «_**Hello, this is Olympic. Who's signalling, please?**_»

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

«_**O-o-o-**_**Olympic**_**...?!**_»

Yukiko's brown eyes widened as her mind quickly interpreted what she could recognize of the signaller's accent. It was mostly Kansai Japanese, though it had the undertones of Chūgoku which had been spoken around the Maizuru Naval District where four of her sisters had been constructed as part of the Third and Fourth Naval Armaments Supplement Programs to rapidly expand the Imperial fleet in the lead up to the Greater East Asia War. However, there was also the hint of tones more common to the _**Solomon Islands**_ in that voice. Yukiko learned from her other fleet mates that for shipgirls who had been sunk during that war, they sometimes were influenced by the native languages of whatever culture whose land was near where they foundered. Of course, there was the cases of both herself and Akamatsu Himeko, the reborn spirit of the only other Imperial Navy destroyer to actually serve in another country's maritime warfare branch after VJ Day. While Yukiko still saw herself pretty much as Japanese, the silver-haired adopted native of Maizuru and Nakhódka in Russia now known on Yiziba as the Faithful Fountain of Sound, _**Behete**_ ("_**Hibiki**_"), viewed herself as both Japanese AND Russian.

Quickly recalling whom of her sisters had sunk during the Solomons campaign...

«_**Kagerō, you should identify yourself. We ARE in England now.**_»

Yukiko gasped. «_**KAGERŌ-NĒSAN?!**_»

"Commander...?"

That was Dumbledore, who was gazing in concern at the adopted native of Sasebo and Jīlóng. Yukiko flustered as she got herself back together, then she scratched the back of her head in embarrassment again. "Yukikaze is sorry, Kōchō-sensei! But Yukikaze is hearing Kagerō-nēsan's voice right now! Yukikaze didn't know that Kagerō-nēsan had returned to duty as a shipgirl as well!" She looked off to the southeast. «_**Kagerō-nēsan, who's with you right now?!**_» she telepathically thought out.

«_**Other than you, Isokaze, Hamakaze, Hayashio and Natsushio, we're all here!**_»

Eleanor Smith gazed at the transformed destroyer. "How many of your class are there, Commander?"

Yukiko blinked as she felt her eyes tear. "There were nineteen of us...!"

«_**Who are you with right now, Yukikaze?**_» the voice of the shipgirl that had urged the reborn destroyer _Kagerō_ — Yukiko knew her human name was Yuhara Minami — then asked, making the eighth of her class blink in confusion on noting the sheer lack of emotion in that question even if the accent hinted that she had been built in or around Yokosuka, though such was mixed with what strongly sounded like _**Tagalog**_; several of the destroyers found by Saeru Hinako over the previous year who had sunk around the central part of the Philippines during the war had the same type of undercurrent in their own voices.

«_**Royal Mail Ships **_**Olympic**_**, **_**Titanic **_**and **_**Carpathia**_**, Steamship **_**Nomadic **_**and Her Majesty's Hospital Ship **_**Britannic**,» Sarah transmitted out as she focused towards the southeast. «_**I hope you do remember, young lady, that there's no war now between our empires.**_»

Silence.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Then...

_**FFF-WOOOSH!**_

Everyone standing around the shipgirls were literally knocked off their feet as a typhoon-strength gust of wind seemed to swirl around Yukiko and the Smith sisters for a moment before the air solidified into fourteen teenage girls with the same general body builds the eighth of her class possessed. Like Yukiko, they were in the halter-top form-fitting battlesuits with bares shoulders and arms that most of the current generation of Named Yizibajohei donned in fight scenes. Individual colours spanned the spectrum, though there were several girls who had white gauntlets now covering their hands. As people gasped while they tried to pick themselves up from the ground — it was a sheer MIRACLE the excavator that had been used to dig up the ground around the swimming pool hadn't been knocked over by the sudden arrival of so many Yukiko's sisters — all of them seemed to peer at the Western girls in the battle uniforms with the pullover sweaters displaying commander's rank in the Royal Navy. One of them — Yukiko was quick to spot the kanji **秋雲** in two-tone burgundy over a sphere depicting a cloudy autumn day on her chest — instantly locked on Eleanor Smith, then she blinked for a moment...

...before everyone watching this save the shipgirls staggered in shock as the reincarnation of the last of the Kagerō-class destroyers whipped out a SKETCHBOOK of all things from nowhere! Her free hand pulled out a mechanical pencil before she dipped her head down to start drawing...

...before she yelped in shocked surprise as a gloved fist smacked her in the head, nearly knocking her face-first into the dirt! "_**OW!**_" the being who had been hailed as Yuhara Tokimi when she had been reborn and Gifted off the coast of the Zamboanga Peninsula on Mindanao in the Philippines a month before yelped before she stared teary-eyed at the first of her class. "Taichō...!"

"Not...NOW, Akigumo!" Yuhara Minami snapped as she glared intently at her youngest sister to ensure she would comply. "You didn't ASK Titanic-sama for PERMISSION to draw a portrait of her...!"

_**KK-KKRACK...!**_

Everyone jolted, then Greg Lestrange looked in the direction of the large pit that had been dug up under the pool. "Oh, bloody hell...!" the inspector groaned as several constables moved in to look...

...before the exposed roof of whatever secret space had been placed under where the pool was installed centuries before exploded outward, allowing a miasma of dark energy to billow out into the sky overhead, such instantly transforming into a small troupe of VERY familiar creatures in the eyes of all the magicals who had come to this place this day. "_**DEMENTORS!**_" Nymphadora Tonks cried out, whipping out her wand just as the air around the scene began to noticeably chill.

"_**EXPECTO PATRONUM!**_"

A triumvirate of spiritual animals instantly leapt forth from the wands of the three more experienced magicals present, the phoenix, lynx and bulldog representing Albus Dumbledore, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Alastor Moody immediately swarming around the dark creatures that had just freed themselves from their underground prison. Soon joined by Tonks' jackrabbit, the four beings began to push against the hissing dementors as Lestrange barked orders to his subordinates to pull people back from the pit. As several people — including Mycroft Holmes and Anthea McAllister — dragged dazed policemen back, the rushing sound of air whipping past a human body made Dumbledore look up to see Amy Wall race down, her gauntlet-covered hands glowing. "_**FRY, YOU SOUL-SUCKING BASTARDS!**_" the native of Canterbury who was the current incarnation of the Gay Dancer of the Skies, _**Leyokuo**_ ("_**Free Bird**_"), screamed as bolts of burning energy lashed out to punch through one particular dementor.

The creature squealed as it was nearly ripped apart by that attack...

...then it hissed as it REFORMED itself, making Amy gape in shock on noting that THIS particular soul-sucking beast hadn't been made ashes. _**YOU DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE, MUGGLE...?!**_

The creature screamed again as a jet of concentrated flame ripped into it from Eleanor Smith's direction, making the just-arrived Japanese destroyers gape in surprise on seeing the reborn _**Titanic**_ of all people use FIRE! "_**LEAVE THAT POOR CHILD ALONE, YOU FILTHY BEAST!**_" the second of the Olympic-class liners snapped as shouts echoed from the main building to herald the arrival of other members of the Unending League living at Gashleycrumb as well as Steve Austin.

_**YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER US, SHIP SPIRIT!**_ another of the dark creatures snarled as two broke away from Moody's attempt at containing them to surge at the reborn spirit of the famous passenger liner, they instantly sensing her buried grief at the _**failure**_ in carrying out her basic task of transporting people across the Atlantic on her maiden voyage a century before. _**GIVE US...!**_

The creature then squealed in mortal agony after someone literally teleported onto its back, snaring it by the neck. "Shut up and DIE!" Francine Stoker snarled as she allowed her powers as the Forger of Cadavers, _**Suonaei**_ ("_**Lamia**_"), to DRAIN the dementor of whatever power that was keeping it effectively "alive". "You're not dealing with 'mere muggles' NOW, aren't you?!"

_**THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEF...!**_

"I must borrow this."

A surprised yelp from Dumbledore made people's heads turn...

...then Yukiko — who had been busy using her cryokinetic powers to protect some of the helpless policemen from the dark kami that had just surged up from the pit as well as seal it off to prevent any more critters from emerging to cause havoc — gasped in horror on seeing an aqua-eyed sister with pink hair in a high ponytail literally flip herself over the aged arch-mage to snare the Elder Wand, then she raced at the creatures at flank speed. "_**SHIRANUI-NĒSAN, WHAT ARE YOU...?!**_"

"_**Kontō...!**_"

People gasped as a blazing nōdachi of pure white energy erupted from the gloved hand of the second of the Kagerō-class destroyers, its hilt completely cloaking the first of the Deathly Hallows created centuries before by the Undying Lord. The dementors, stunned that this impudent ship spirit would charge them head on, all moved to swarm the adopted native of Yokosuka, reaching out with their own powers to overwhelm her soul so they could feast on it; given that Yuhara Seiko was the reborn living spirit of the destroyer _Shiranui_, she had been touched by the souls of HUNDREDS from the moment she was laid down to when she sank with all hands two days after Leyte Gulf...!

_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!**_

A second later, a geyser of shredded dark energy exploded into the sky!

_**To Be Continued...**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

As stated after the title card, this story is set after the events of the **Battle of P'yŏng'yang** in the main story. Please consult the writer's notes of the main story to get an idea as to the general plot of the story as well as background information concerning each of the contributing series who provide characters and situations to the main story as well as this short.

Shipgirls introduced or mentioned in this story (in sections):

Commander **Nancy Rostron** RNR (**Royal Mail Ship **_**Carpathia**_ [pennant A274])  
Cdr **Sarah Smith** RNR (**Royal Mail Ship **_**Olympic**_ [pennant A400])  
Cdr **Eleanor Smith** RNR (**Royal Mail Ship **_**Titanic**_ [pennant A401])  
Cdr **Charlene Smith-Bartlett** RNR (**Her Majesty's Hospital Ship **_**Britannic**_ [pennant A433])  
Lieutenant **Gwenaëlle Laniece** RNR (**Steamship **_**Nomadic**_ [pennant A422])

For the above former passenger liners and tenders, please consult the writer's notes for the fourteenth omake, _Reborn From The Deep_, as to how each of these girls look like and what inspired same. All of them, as noted in the teaser scene, were made members of the **Royal Naval Reserve** (**RNR**), the part-time element of the United Kingdom's maritime warfare service. All auxiliary vessels in the Royal Navy these days would be given the pennant superior **A** before their specific hull number.

Fregattenkapitän **Lieselotte Maaß** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z1 Leberecht Maass**_ [pennant Z1])

Please see the writer's notes for Part Five of the main story to describe how German ships were addressed as in the universe of my stories. Note also that the Type 1934 destroyers (of which **KMS **_**Leberecht Maass**_ was the first) were the first true destroyers (in German, **zerstörer**) built for Germany; hence, she was given pennant superior **Z** before her hull number. All craft constructed before the Type 1934-class were seen as torpedo boats (in German, **torpedoboot**) and would get pennant superior **T**. Naturally, **Lieselotte Maaß** would take after her _Kantai Collection_ interpretation.

Captain **Katharine "Kathy" Hyde** USN (**United States Ship **_**New Jersey**_ [BB-62])  
Lieutenant **Marlene Bucher-Flanagan** USN (**United States Ship **_**Pueblo**_ [AGER-2])

CAPT Kathy Hyde is based on the interpretation of a shipgirl version of USS _New Jersey_ as introduced by **TheJMPer** in his _KanColle_ fanfic story _Belated Battleships_. LT Marlene Bucher-Flanagan first appeared in Part Twenty-seven of the main story.

**Akamatsu Himeko**-chūsa DNKR (later Kapitán Vtoróvo Ránga **Khímeko Khagémiovna Akamátsu** VMFRF [ex-VMFSSSR]) (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Hibiki**_ [KK-177], later **Èskádrennykh Minonóstsev **_**Vérnyj**_ [pennant 607])  
**Yuhara Minami**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Kagerō**_ [KK-206])  
**Yuhara Seiko**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Shiranui**_ [KK-207])  
**Yuhara Kunie**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Kuroshio**_ [KK-208])  
**Yuhara Chikako**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Oyashio**_ [KK-209])  
**Yuhara Hayako**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Hayashio**_ [KK-210])  
**Yuhara Natsumi**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Natsushio**_ [KK-211])  
**Yuhara Hikaru**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Hatsukaze**_ [KK-212])  
**Yuhara Yukiko**-chūsa DNKR (later Zhōngxiào ZHMH) (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Yukikaze**_ [KK-213], later **Zhōnghuá Mínguó Zhànjiàn **_**Dānyáng**_ [QJ-07])  
**Yuhara Amako**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Amatsukaze**_ [KK-214])  
**Yuhara Tokiko**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Tokitsukaze**_ [KK-215])  
**Yuhara Utako**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Urakaze**_ [KK-216])  
**Yuhara Izumi**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Isokaze**_ [KK-217])  
**Yuhara Hama**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Hamakaze**_ [KK-218])  
**Yuhara Taniko**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Tanikaze**_ [KK-219])  
**Yuhara Norie**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Nowaki**_ [KK-220])  
**Yuhara Arisa**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Arashi**_ [KK-221])  
**Yuhara Hiromi**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Hagikaze**_ [KK-222])  
**Yuhara Mai**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Maikaze**_ [KK-223])  
**Yuhara Tokimi**-chūsa DNKR (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Akigumo**_ [KK-224])

In the universe of my stories, native hull classification symbol codes are used for those who follow an American-type system. Thus, Japanese destroyers get the prefix **KK** ("**Kuchikukan**") before their hull numbers and Chinese destroyers are given the prefix **QJ** ("**Qūzhújiàn**"); note that in real life, both the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force and the Republic of China Navy use the English **DD** style. In the Russian Navy in my stories, combat shipgirls are numbered with three-digit pennant codes in specific blocks set aside for them; destroyers get numbers in the 300-699 range. Of the Japanese shipgirls listed above, **THG **_**Hayashio**_ (**Yuhara Hayako**) and **THG **_**Natsushio**_ (**Yuhara Natsumi**) have yet to be implemented into _Kantai Collection_; should they appear in the future in my stories, Hayako will take after the _Azur Lane_ interpretation of **THG **_**Kagerō**_ (**Yuhara Minami**) while Natsumi would take after the _Azur Lane_ interpretation of Minami's immediate younger sister **THG **_**Shiranui**_ (**Yuhara Seiko**)...though naturally, any physical template from _Azur Lane_ would NOT be any type of therianthrope such as a kitsune or oni. All other shipgirls in the above list take after their _KanColle_ interpretations.

_Sweet Valley High_ character notes: **Lila Fowler** (**Cyclotron**) was a background character throughout the book series, though she did star in several volumes and even had a Magna Edition dedicated specifically for her, plus another looking at her family history.

_Harry Potter_ minor character notes: The late **Augustus Lestrange** (his given name is my invention) was first mentioned in _Half-Blood Prince_; of course, **Tobias Lestrange** is my own creation. Note that all noble titles indicated here are my invention; see the writer's notes for Part Ten of the main story to see how the houses of the **Wizengamot** are divided. Of course, **Voldemort** and the **Death Eaters** were forever dealt with by **Rose Potter** (_né_ **Harry Potter**) (the **Warlock**), her wife **Thérèse Peverell** (the **Thaumaturge**), **Pansy Parkinson** (**Silhouette**), her wife **Hermione Granger** (the **Enchantress**), **Ginny Weasley** (**Soulfire**), her wife **Luna Lovegood** (**Prophecy**) and **Neville Longbottom** (**Vinclozolin**) in Part Fifteen of the main story. Captain **Andrea Slaed** of the **Schwarze Mädchen** ("Black Maidens") would have appeared in the third _Wizards and Avalonians_ side story to _Phoenix From the Ashes_. **Elaine Savage** (her given name is my invention) was also mentioned first in _Half-Blood Prince_.

_Sherlock_ minor character notes: Detective Sergeant **Sally Donovan** first appeared in _A Study in Pink_, which is where **Anthea McAllister** (her family name is my invention) also first appeared.

Translation list: **Fregattenkapitän** — Frigate Captain (short-form **FKpt**), the German rank title for a Navy commander (NATO rank code OF-4); **KMDR** — Short for **Kriegsmarine des Deutschen Reiches** ("War Navy of the German Realm"); **Kriegsmarineschiff** — War Navy Ship (short-form **KMS**); **Nimmib** — Phonemicization of the letters **NMMB** ("non-magical magic-born"), the politically correct term first coined in Canada in the 1910s for squibs; **Chūnin** — Middle-rank ninjutsu-ka; **Tensei-ryū** — School of the Star of Heaven; **Chūsa** — Mid-rank Field Officer, the Japanese rank title for a Navy commander, Army lieutenant colonel or Air Force wing commander, which is translated into Mandarin as **Zhōngxiào**; **DNKR** — Short for **Dai-Nihon Teikoku Kaigun** ("Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire"); **Kapitán Vtoróvo Ránga** — Captain of the Second Rank, the Russian rank title for a Navy commander; **VMFRF** — Short for **Voénno-Morskój Flót Rossíjskoj Federátsii** ("Military Maritime Fleet of the Russian Federation"); **VMFSSSR** — Short for **Voénno-Morskój Flót Sojúz Sovétskikh Sotsialistícheskikh Respúblik** ("Military Maritime Fleet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"); **Tennō Heika Gunkan** — Warship of His Imperial Majesty the Heavenly Sovereign (short-form **THG**); **Èskádrennykh Minonóstsev** — Squadron torpedo boat (short-form **ÈM**), the Russian type name and ship prefix for destroyers; **ZHMH** — Short for **Zhōnghuá Mínguó Hǎijūn** ("Navy of the Republic of China"); **Zhōnghuá Mínguó Zhànjiàn** — Warship of the Republic of China (short-form **ZMZ**); **Shirē** — Commander (in Yukiko-speak); **Taichō** — Captain/Boss; **Kontō** — Soulsword.


	2. The Power of Gashleycrumb

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the **_**Copyright Act **_**(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

_**Gashleycrumb House, the cafeteria, mid-afternoon...**_

"There you are, Kōchō-sensei."

As the considerable crowd that gathered inside the cafeteria in the wake of the complete destruction of a dozen dementors by Yuhara Seiko via soulsword watched, Albus Dumbledore took the Elder Wand from the adopted native of Yokosuka, feeling the ki runes the second of the Kagerō-class destroyers tenderly etched with her fingernail into the skin of his right wrist lock in on the ancient weapon. As soon as his hand fully gripped the ebony mesonium-charged handle of the elder wood device with the thestral hair core, the arch-mage gasped as he felt the runes activate. He immediately augmented his considerable Occlumency skills to prevent the darker urges holding the Deathstick always unleashed on its current master or mistress as the wand glowed brightly for a moment while the loyalty lock that had been placed on it by the disguised Undying Lord of Rügen clicked back in, reforging the bond that had been first formed on the night of the summer solstice in 1945 at Nurmengard. "Oh, my...!"

"You best be careful about this, Mistress Seiko," Garrick Ollivander said as his pale silver eyes twinkled in amusement after what he just witnessed. He had been called onto the scene from Diagon Alley by Alastor Moody in the wake of what happened around the outdoor pool thanks in large part to the Elder Wand. "People have been researching ways to permanently bond wands to owners for years, even centuries! Learning there's a non-magical way of doing it as taught by your martial arts school will create a considerable furor, both with people who would flock over you to get their wands sealed to them and those who would loudly disapprove of a 'muggle' knowing such wandlore."

Seiko's eyebrow elegantly arched as she sat back in her chair, her hands resting on her lap with the fingers poised in a perfect Merkel-Raute; seeing that made both Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes both blink as they wondered how long it had been since the adopted native of Yokosuka was reborn and Gifted. "Given that a dozen of my crew were practitioners of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū who had been personally trained by Sensei herself when she was then residing within the subconscious mind of Patriarch Moroboshi Ryūbi, I doubt those who would seek to kill me for my 'impertinence' will find me an easy mark, Master Craftsman," she coolly stated, making some of the people there — even some of her sisters — shudder at such a toneless voice. As Ollivander blushed at being addressed by such a formal title, Seiko added, "My response to those who would honestly seek my services in such a matter will depend, of course, on both Sensei and her brother as he has become our spiritual admiral."

Rueful chuckles filled the room. "The kid is NOT going to like this," Steve Austin noted before sipping his coffee. "How long since you girls all came back?" he then asked Seiko's elder sister Minami.

"I came back a month ago," the first of the Kagerō-class destroyers answered, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment from the fact that she hadn't reported back to competent authority once she was reborn and Gifted off the coast of Rendova in the Solomon Islands. As some of her sisters snickered in amusement, Minami added, "After I was Gifted, I just drifted around the Solomons, using my cloaking capabilities to learn what happened since I was sunk back in Shōwa-jūhachinen..."

"Nineteen-forty-three," Jim Bellairs translated as he gazed upon the older-looking woman.

That look made the adopted native of Maizuru blush as her eyes danced over the trim body of the handsome yet shockingly thin young man. Several of the just-arrived shipgirls snickered anew on seeing their elder sister visually "flirt" with the native of King's Lynn, which made Minami blush even more on being effectively called out like that. "Once Minami was fully comfortable and had accepted the fact that the Greater East Asia War was over and the Home Islands had recovered with the help of the Americans and their allies, she began seeking the remainder of us," Seiko calmly explained. "From what I observed after my own Gifting through monitoring communication networks Terrans-turned-Yizibajohei use — thus, I was able to inform my siblings concerning what Hinako-himesama did concerning the Fukushima, Ashikaga and Akamatsu sisters earlier this year — I was able to conclude that name ships of any warship class gain an extra power atop the normal gifts the Doctor's second incarnation gave our new bodies when she created them to deal with the Goa'uld five millennia ago."

"What sort of gift is that, Commander?" Dumbledore asked.

"Being the 'elder sister figure' of our 'families', people such as Minami would be able to sense where the kami of all members of a particular class of warships were located. Thus, it completely surprised me that Fukushima Fujiko for example was not able to locate her sisters Shiroko, Suzuki and Shinobu — respectively, _Shinonome_, _Usugumo_ and _Shirakumo_ — after she was reborn and Gifted. Look how easily Yasuko-san and her siblings Mutsuko-san and Shizuka-san were able to sense Yoiko-san..."

"This Musashi has arrived!"

People perked, then they looked over...

...before Minami immediately rose to her feet, smartly saluting the ash-haired super-battleship that had just smartly walked in. "Mutsuko-san! It's good to see you again!" the first of her class of destroyers declared as her eyes danced over Itō Mutsuko's black jumpsuit with the silver belt and boots, not to mention the silver demi-cape draped around her muscular shoulders and the symbols marking her spiritual affiliation to the greatest of Japan's samurai. "Reporting all members of my class save _Isokaze_, _Hayashio_, _Natsushio_ and _Hamakaze_ present at this time and ready to serve at Tennō's desire."

The reborn second of the Yamato-class returned that salute with a nod. "Hamakaze-dono and Isokaze-dono are currently with this Musashi's sister now in the northern part of Korea while Teitoku's sister finalizes things with the reborn Sandalwood Empress, Kagerō-dono," she stated as a private came over with a cup of tea for her. "You have this Musashi's thanks, good chef," she declared, making the young logistician blush at her formal mode of speech, which seemed to come straight from Shakespeare. "Excuse this Musashi for a moment," she stated before gazing at Minami. "Kagerō-dono, what made you and your sisters come here to old Albion instead of returning back to the Home Islands?"

"Minami sensed that Yukiko was here all alone and expressed concern for her current situation, Mutsuko-san," Seiko calmly answered on her sister's behalf. "It was fortunate that we did come this way. Have you been briefed on what has happened here with our current hosts?"

That earned her a dark scowl from the adopted native of Fuchū and Nagasaki. "Aye, this Musashi learned of the filthy actions that nimmib and his allies unleashed on the little ones here." Her gaze softened as she looked upon the inhabitants of the orphanage now in the cafeteria. "This Musashi is pleased at the idea that those of you who allowed yourselves to be Gifted were able to trip those monsters up and allow them to face their deserved fates within the Moors of Gonebren."

"Sadly, that won't be possible for any of them, Captain Itō," Mycroft declared. "Given how public the revelations of what happened here became, they'll be condemned to normal prisons, not Gonebren."

Shock crossed Mutsuko's face. "Not even the nimmib, Holmes-dono?!"

"Not even him, I'm afraid."

"Accidents could be arranged, Mycroft," Steve Austin coldly observed.

The Master of the Fencibles dryly chuckled. "It is tempting, Mister Austin."

"This Musashi recommends you listen to that voice, Holmes-dono," Mutsuko coldly declared as her goggles glittered in dark anticipation. "This Musashi can smell the spilled blood of the innocents within the walls of this sad place. The kami of those lost scream for vengeance..."

"Calm yourself, Mutsuko," an ice-cold voice then declared, making people gape as the destroyers save Yukiko stared in utter disbelief on seeing a VERY tall woman in a more classical mode of battle dress walk in. "Lestrange will waste away in prison, his karma forever bleeding, guaranteeing his return as a dog or other such befitting animal once he departs this life and faces the final judgment of the Dhármachakra." An evil smile crossed the face of the fifth of her class and the first to be converted to an aircraft carrier. "Or perhaps the more 'noble' of those denizens of the underworld might decide to deliver a harsher form of Her Majesty's Justice on the swine and his allies once their fates are decided at the Old Bailey." That earned the seventh carrier of Operation Z a chorus of snorts from many people there as Mutsuko cackled in delight. "Let us be joyful that a large wing of the Great Forge's most powerful warriors have arisen to strike down all who might hurt their long-suffering kin within the walls of this old palace." Here, Itō Yoiko gazed in amusement at Ida Saint Clair, offering her hand to the native of Sunderland. "My compliments, Miss Saint Clair, at the stealth approach you and your fellows took against Lestrange and his ilk. Most surprising given what you were all Gifted as by the Great Kami of the Forge. Many who now know of your being empowered as such expressed great shock that members of the Unending League could be like ninja when it was required."

"Oh, believe me, Captain Itō, we wanted to go all out on those bastards," Ida said as she shook Yoiko's hand, then shook Mutsuko's once it was offered. "Some of us actually got the chance to get some decent exercise, especially against the magical creatures who allied with that death cheater Riddle. Pity that those fools didn't put things together in time before the Thaumaturge put a spanner in the whole bloody works and did just as good as Miss Whitman could do to any of us."

"I saw what you did to those giants, Miss Strictland," Kingsley Shacklebolt stated as he gazed in appreciation at Kate Strickland. As Nymphadora Tonks looked a little green on recalling the images of the hacked-apart and torn-apart corpses she and her senior found once they directed to investigate the hidden base the Death Eaters had set up near Swansea, the Grenadian-descent auror whose ancestors had helped Abraham Lincoln put down the daywalker vampire rebellion that coincided with the Civil War added, "I think that combined with what Frigate Captain Maaß did at Whitby before Samhain, we'll have no issues from any werewolves in the country for a very long time to come."

As Tonks turned even more green on hearing Shacklebolt say that — she had been part of the auror detail dispatched from the Ministry of Magic to examine the site of the Whitby Werewolf Massacre the morning before Hallowe'en when elements of MI5 contacted their special liaison officer in the DMLE concerning the noticeable smell of rotting corpses in some hidden location on a beach close to the town in North Yorkshire having being reported in normal police channels; gazing at the brutalized corpses ensured she couldn't keep down any meal she had that day — Kate smirked. "Well, if you got any other issues with creeps that can't mind their own business, give me a call. I can use the exercise."

"So can I," declared Maud Price. The native of Reading west of London was the current incarnation of the Undersea Avalanche, _**Kalomiso**_ ("_**Fathom**_"). In effect a FISS-type without the ability to fly like one Urashima Keitarō, the Berkshire-born sixteen year-old with the shaggy short-cropped dirty blonde hair and the dark brown eyes became as strong as the Unmovable One, _**Latoram**_ ("_**Stone Mountain**_"), himself while she was underwater...and the deeper the water she was submersed in, the STRONGER Maud became! "I've read a copy of _Fantastic Beasts_ Hector was able to get from the Canadians' MagicNet after I got Gifted. You get any issues with those kraken off Land's End, I'll sort them out."

"Best not have that passed on to Newt, Kingsley," Dumbledore then wryly advised.

Cold laughter filled the room...

* * *

_**The director's office, an hour later...**_

"So the whole place will be warded with notice-me-not charms by your people to keep the curious away from bothering us, Captain?" Ida Saint Clair then wondered as she gazed on her new host.

"Ja," Andrea Slaed declared as she relaxed in what was now effectively HER chair. Using both what she inherited from the Lestrange family in her position as the Viscountess of Barnet and her own personal wealth — which had never been touched by the Federal Ministry of Magical Affairs in West Germany after her "death" at Nurmengard during the Battle of the Gates in 1945; such having grown quite splendidly in her vault at Gringotts over the years — she was arranging for the purchase of the property with the help of the kobaloi bankers once it and any other property belonging to Tobias Lestrange were legally stripped away from him at his trial. "Fortunately, given what happened to your peers, the kobaloi in Gringotts are willing to give us discounted prices for their warding schemes to keep the curious on both sides of the security divide away from here. The killing, raping and abuse of children is something none of them would EVER tolerate. Even if their relations with the Ministry of Magic have always been off-kilter thanks to the xenophobia most of the leichenblut Schweinhunde that live in the magical enclaves feel towards other races, they have ethical standards that are quite admirable."

Cold snickers escaped the members of the Unending League who were now in the office with her, they accompanied by some of the Kagerō-class destroyers. "Wait until we tell those guys about all the gold that's on Yiziba that could be mined," Ernest Wilder commented. "They'd want to have pillow scenes with us to get children so they would have a constant source of the stuff available to fill their vaults!"

Laughter escaped some of the others. "Well, save for their being a little on the short side, some of them are downright handsome blokes," Rhoda Theroux stated, a wistful smile crossing the reborn dancer's face. The current incarnation of the Blazing Ballerina, _**Buotalubur'ba**_ ("_**Firewalker**_"), was a pretty native of the London borough of Merton near the border with Surrey. Ironically, she had something of a connection to Rose Potter. When she was just about to enter kindergarten, her parents moved to Little Whinging due to cheaper housing and would become a classmate of then-Harry Potter before his disappearance in the fall of 2003. Like so many others who had gone to Little Whinging Primary School during that time period, Rhoda became a victim of Dudley Dursley's bullying which had been effectively prompted by his parents making him pick on Harry. Also like her peers before she was orphaned thanks to a car accident on the M25 that sent her to Gashleycrumb four years ago, Rhoda was glad to be rid of Dudley once his family fled England for the "safer" climate of Australia. Of course, now she was Gifted, she often found herself contemplating getting some licks of her own on the spoiled berk. According to what Neville Wolf had gleaned from natives of the Commonwealth who had been Gifted themselves, the Dursleys were still vocal rhabdophobes who vocally blamed all their ill fortune over the past decade on the "freak" who had been forced on their "normal" home thanks to Albus Dumbledore.

"Five rounds in the Battlezone says you'll make those chaps blush by coming onto them if we visit Gringotts," Leo Brown wagered, holding up a finger.

A snort answered him. "Sucker's bet, Leo!"

More laughter filled the room as Andrea shook her head...

...before running footfalls made people turn as a panting native of Leyton in the metropolitan borough of Waltham Forest north of downtown London burst into the room. "Herr Kenney, where have you been?" the band mistress of the Schwarze Mädchen wondered.

Taking a deep breath, Titus Kenney staggered over to sit down on one of the couches. "Sorry about that, ma'am!" the current incarnation of the Explosive Mechanic, _**Rieyato**_ ("_**Salvo**_"), declared as Amy Wall reached over to squeeze his shoulder. The would-be anarchist who had become a polymath who could whip up explosive devices from the most mundane of materials had been working in his private shop — a basement room that hadn't been used by the staff to transport would-be child sex slaves anywhere; its entrances had been booby-trapped to kill any of the staff were they stupid enough to look inside — since lunchtime. "Just heard over the bloody BBC! I think old _Belfast_ wants to be a shipgirl!"

Jaws dropped as people took a moment to take that in...

* * *

_**Just off the Queen's Walk in Southwark (five kilometres south of east from Gashleycrumb), ten minutes before...**_

"Oh, oishii da...! Itadakimasu!"

People now dining in one of the restaurants in Hay's Galleria turned on hearing that squealing voice escape the pretty caramel-haired Oriental teenager now munching down on a virtual MOUNTAIN of bagels before then turned back to their own food. Some of the more observant of the lot were quick to blink as something came to them, they they looked back to see that said teenager was dressed in the form-fitting jumpsuits with the bared arms and shoulders worn by most of Earth's new generation of metahumans...to say anything of the reborn spirits of warships and famous civilian vessels who took a chance to be "gifted" and be made human. And given this particular girl's pale silver suit with grey belt, boots and gauntlets, never mind the beautiful moon symbol on her chest topped by the kanji **照月**...

"Eh?! She's _**Teruzuki**_?!"

Heads turned over, then an aged man in the standard dark suit of a member of the Royal British Legion blinked on seeing a group of younger men with those newfangled tablet computers in hand, all of them now staring in wide-eyed shock at the adopted native of Nagasaki. On hearing her ship name, the woman who had been named "Akiyama Teruyo" by that incredible kami that transformed her into a human being and given her such wonderful powers perked, then she looked over. "Hai?"

"Er...you can understand us, can't you?" one man asked. Like his peers, he was a passionate fan of _World of Warships_; it was that which helped gave him an idea as to what Teruyo had been.

She blinked, then a blush crossed her face. "Ah...h-hai...!" she sputtered in Japanese...which the crowd around her could clearly hear in English thanks to her suit's translator systems. "Um..."

"Why aren't you in Japan, miss?" another boy asked. "Your sister _Suzutsuki_ is a shipgirl now..."

That made Teruyo leap to her feet, nearly knocking over the table with its wonderful pile of tasty snacks that she had been able to purchase thanks to money she obtained after exchanging some gold via Gringotts in Diagon Alley. In that, she thanked all the Kami that two of her crew were magicals affiliated to the Greater East Asia Liberation Army who had done a lot of research on Western enclaves. Of course, given how hungry she was, she didn't want to make a scene at the Leaky Cauldron off Charing Cross Road, so she had flown around the great metropolis until she had landed close to where the ninth of the Town-class light cruisers had been docked in honoured retirement before the incredible sights of the Galleria attracted her inside. "_**SUZUTSUKI'S BACK?!**_" she exclaimed.

The boys were nearly blown back by her exuberant shout. "Um...y-yeah! She came back after lunch yesterday their time!" the first boy explained as a sheer aura of relief sank on the shoulders of the second Akizuki-class air defence destroyer. As people relaxed themselves while some took out those strange mobile phones to take pictures of Teruyo, he added, "Turns out that living angel down near Hiroshima brought back the kami of _Yamato_ and her sisters — save _Yonaga_ — and allowed them to stay in her domain until _Graf Zeppelin_ and the youngest of the Moroboshi sisters came along and helped convince them to be human. _Suzutsuki_ and the others who were in on Operation: Ten-gō all became shipgirls and headed back towards Yokosuka to get help to save _Yamato._"

"You have a human name, Teruzuki-dono?" a Japanese businessman who had been touring the south bank of the Thames asked, using the native honorific as he gazed respectfully at this transformed kami.

That made her blush. "Um...Akiyama Teruyo desu!" she answered, bowing her head to him. As he returned her courtesy, she hummed. "I wonder what Suzutsuki-chan's name is...?" she trilled...

...before she squawked as the whole building shook lightly, a crashing noise echoing from outside!

"_**WHAT WAS THAT?!**_" the old veteran demanded.

Perking as something inside her whispered that another shipgirl was in the middle of some sort of battle outside — within range of THOUSANDS of potential bystanders who wouldn't be able to escape being hurt or killed! — Teruyo spun about and raced for the main doors, moving at incredible speed. "_**PLEASE EXCUSE ME!**_" she cried out as she somersaulted over a couple before unsteadily flying off.

People watched her go, then the veteran sighed. "I'll pay her tab," he then advised a nearby waiter...

* * *

_**Outside...**_

"Ye numpty Sassenach!" the beautiful blonde woman appearing to be eighteen or so snarled as she glared at the beefy teenage man who had tried to molest her while she had been trying to find some way to turn her still-warship sister into a shipgirl like herself. Of course, the back slap the last of the Town-class cruisers constructed had just given the leering pervert sent him head-first right into a nearby garbage dumpster, totalling it. "Who the bloody hell taught a manky git like ye manners?!"

"Er...Captain! For God's sake, calm down! You can't...!"

"_**FFFREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK...!**_"

The reborn soul of the fifth HMS _Edinburgh_ — now Harmony Walker — yelped, her blue eyes widening in surprise as the muscular lad in the blood-red uniform with the burgundy belt and pirate's buccaneer boots lunged out from the wrecked dumpster, his fist cocked and rocketing right for her face. Before it could hit — and given what Harmony had sensed of his physical toughness when she struck him, this was DEFINITELY going to hurt! — a hand caught the oncoming punch, creating a sonic boom from the impact as the just-Gifted former resident of Little Whinging found himself punching the metaphysical equivalent of 42,923 tonnes of World War Two-era fast battleship! As the brutish thug-like fellow gargled while his body sensed the waves of agony hitting his brain from hitting the hand of the second King George V-class battleship, the adopted native of Birkenhead and Caernarfon in northwest Wales — respectively, the place where the sixth HMS _Prince of Wales_ had been constructed and the ancient centre of royal control over Wales itself — sneered before contemptuously shoving him back. "That's bloody well enough!" Jean Leach snapped as she gave the twit a look that matched what the most nasty drill petty officers unleashed on nozzers at HMS _Raleigh_. "What the deuce is going on, Edinburgh?!"

Quickly seeing the Saint George's Cross with the hereditary feathers and coronet symbolizing the heir to the Throne within the crest borne on the taller and more curvier blonde's white uniform with red belt and boots, Harmony sighed as she relaxed herself. As the small crowd of police officers who had come running when the news of this incident got out over social media breathed out on seeing that a more powerful shipgirl had come to restore order, the ninth of the Town class sneered at the visibly wincing man. "I came here as soon as I sensed that my sister was preserved here like they did old _Victory_, then tried to talk to her to make her become like me, Wales," she explained, her thick brogue disappearing as she fell back on the formal King's English her officers used. As more people came onto the scene to see what was going on, many gasped on realizing who had also "returned to duty" as a shipgirl. "Next thing I knew, this impudent glaikit started touching my buttocks and asked me to go on a 'date'..." — here, confusion flashed across the cruiser's face — "...with him! Well, I was nae in any mood, so I brushed him off, but the fool galoot didn't listen to me! I had to strike him to defend myself!"

"You've every right to do that, Captain," the sergeant in charge of the patrol that responded to the call declared as he came over to stand close to the shipgirls. "Sadly, given that he's clearly Gifted and he's got to be a bloody FISS-type, we're going to have the devil's own time keeping him contained in gaol!" He then lowered his voice before asking, "You two know about the magicals that live among us?"

Both veterans of World War Two nodded. "Nimmibs were in my crew," Jean answered.

Sadly, the sergeant wasn't too quiet for one Dudley Dursley.

"_**FRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKS...!**_"

Both Jean and Harmony cried out in shocked disbelief while the current incarnation of the Amok Terror, _**Tyatomo**_ ("_**Hereward**_"), lunged again at the battleship, his hands grasping for her neck to strangle her.

Before Jean could react, a crimson-headed blur lunged between Rose Potter's maternal cousin and his current target, a well-cocked fist rocketing right for his jaw at supersonic speeds...

_**KK-KKRACK!**_

Nearby windows imploded from that sonic boom as the blow just delivered by Jean's younger sister Louise Teck landed on Dudley's chin, the punch angled perfectly to send the just-Gifted bully that had haunted Little Whinging Primary School for some years flying into the sky. As he vanished in a flash of light echoing his reaching supersonic speeds from Louise's punch, the crowd around them whooped on seeing that another veteran of Britain's most devastating war had gladly returned to protect them.

"Feh! Scharnhorst was tougher!" the reborn second HMS _Duke of York_ snorted.

Hearing that declaration, cheers echoed through the scene as many teenagers raced over to place themselves close to the three British shipgirls so selfies could be made. As Harmony, Jean and Louise blinked in understandable confusion, a distant rumble echoed from behind them, making all three tense, they instantly sensing the same sort of power that had seized their wrecks (or scattered scrap medal in the case of the third King George V-class battleship) before they were made fully intact, then their hulls were metaphysically compressed into the first generation battle doll bodies that another member of Yiziba's most infamous group of metahuman warriors unleashed on an unsuspecting cosmos...

_**Tene lomher'buo, Genette Addison Scott...**_

Everyone perked, then they turned to gaze upon the hull of HMS _Belfast_...

...which was now _glowing_!

"Oh, bloody hell...!" the leader of the group of boys who had confronted the second of the Akizuki-class destroyers inside Hay's Galleria moaned as a certain space-warp delivered the final ingredient...

"_**DUCK!**_" Jean screamed out.

People spun away as they dropped to the ground...

_**Nesu...BADATO!**_

Silence then fell over the scene...

"Er...dreadfully s-sorry about that...!"

People turned to see the girl with the green-tinged black hair in a long French braid now floating over the Thames where she had been docked alongside for years, she dressed in a uniform similar to her sister's in overall design: Done overall in the blue-red-gold tartan of County Antrim in Ulster, she had dark green boots and belt matching the unicorn on her ship's crest on her chest, a caubeen done in the same pattern as her uniform perched on her head with the crowned harp badge of the Royal Ulster Rifles — HMS _Belfast_'s old affiliated Army regiment — positioned squarely over her left eye. Noting that, Harmony chuckled as she looked away. "Took ye long enough, ye bloody leprechaun...OWW!"

That was thanks to Addison slapping her sister in the back of the head. "Behave!" she scolded.

As the namesake to Scotland's capital city cringed from her sister's disapproving stare, Jean and Louise blinked as they exchanged looks. "_Cruisers_...!" both battleships moaned as they crossed their arms.

An amused giggle then made the British shipgirls turn to look...

"Sempai-tachi, do you want some food?!" Akiyama Teruyo declared as she held up her plate of bagels.

Jean, Louise, Harmony and Addison gaped before their stomachs creaked, making the crowd around them blink before amused laughter burst from the mouths of many of the younger ones there...

* * *

_**Over the North Sea a hundred-and-ten kilometres due west of Thyborøn in Denmark, some minutes earlier (local time: An hour before supper)...**_

"Um...meine Flaggschiff...!"

Hearing that warning voice from the first of the Type 1934 destroyers built for the recently-renamed Kriegsmarine, Luisa von Bismarck looked over to her port. "What is it, Liese?" the lead of her class of battleships called over as she led the squad of German schiffsmädchen — with three British shipgirls accompanying them along with the youngest of Tariko Katabarbe's sisters, using Kasa-tama to keep up — towards the British Isles, they maintaining an altitude of five thousand metres above the waves.

"Look down, Luisa," Melanie Schultz called out from beside her sister Lieselotte Maaß. "There's a group of people floating over the waves, range four hundred metres six points to starboard."

The world's most famous battleship blinked as she looked in that direction, as did all her companions...

"Oh, my God! I can't believe it!" Charlene Boleyn exclaimed.

"What is it, Charlene?!" Amy Power demanded.

"That's the _**High Seas Fleet**_!"

The Germans gasped as their eyes widened in surprise at the idea of actually meeting their famous predecessors. "The _**Hochseeflotte**_?!" Maria von Tirpitz exclaimed. "We didn't hear any reports...!"

"_**HALT!**_"

Luisa screamed as she seemed to literally skid mid-air into a combat stop/hover over the waves, which almost saw Saeru Hinako fly hard right into her spine. Of course, the other schiffsmädchen were quick to respond to that barked petty officer-like command even as Charlene, Amy and Mary Hood calmly slowed themselves down to a hover. "_**J-J-JAWOHL!**_" the adopted native of Schönhausen sputtered as she snapped to attention so rigidly, one might be concerned about the integrity of her spine.

Hinako wasn't impressed by that act. "Hey!" the current incarnation of the Living Spirit of Innocence, _**Lomroer'bem**_ ("_**Suiki**_"), snapped. "Don't scare Luisa-san like that! That wasn't nice!"

A gargle escaped the twenty-something woman with the bob-cut dark brown hair and the caramel eyes, now floating some distance to the group's port. Befitting the fact that she had been a pre-dreadnought when she was a steel ship, the adopted native of her namesake city in Niedersachsen was in a sleeved jumpsuit. Dark gold overall with white belt and boots, it had the red shield with the rearing silver horse of Hannover over her heart. On seeing that, Luisa's eyes went wide. "M-m-Mutti Hannover...?"

Hinako gasped as she gazed on Luisa, then the woman now known as Monika von Braunschweig, then back again. "Eh?! Monika-san is Luisa-san's MOTHER?!" the native of Niigata demanded.

That made both battleships blush madly. "Er...not exactly, Frau Markgräffin," Eva Neidhardt von Gneisenau declared as her sister Trudl von Scharnhorst snickered before she instantly ducked as Luisa's sister sent her an annoyed look. "You see, when warships were ordered in the Reichsmarine and the Kaiserliche Marine beforehand, the new ships weren't named until launching; no one was supposed to know how they would be named. Until then, they were known as 'Ersatz' with the name of the vessel they're meant to replace. Luisa here was built to replace — Monika, was it...?" At the nod from the second of the Deutschland-class linienschiff, the second of her class of light battleships added, "Hence, she was known as 'Ersatz Hannover' before her launching and christening."

Hinako hummed as she took that in, then she nodded, a smile crossing her face. "Oh, Hina likes that!" she declared, a burst of empathic energy escaping her to wash over the shipgirls surrounding her. As they all — even the still-somewhat morose Mary Hood — blushed at that show of cosmic power, the Spirit of Innocence turned to wag her finger at the taller Aryan blonde, she given the older-looking woman a warning look. "Now, Luisa-san, you listen to everything your mama tells you, alright?!"

As Monika sputtered in embarrassment, Luisa snapped to attention. "Jawohl!"

"Hannover?! What the devil's going on...eh?! Bismarck?! Tirpitz?! Scharnhorst?! Gneisenau?! Zeppelin?!" A delighted laugh then escaped the woman the same age as Monika with the long wavy grey hair and the glittering blue eyes as she soared up to join them. "Damn! Warspite and Hood, too?!" the reborn SMS _Schlesien_ exclaimed as she came to a stop beside her sister. Much to the surprise of the "pure" German schiffsmädchen before her now, the adopted native of Wrocław (the historic capital of her namesake Prussian province now in modern-day southwest Poland) and Gdańsk (where she had been built when said city was part of the province of Westpreußen) had a Wielkopolskie accent even if she spoke German properly. "Well, isn't this quite the surprise! We heard you all came back...!"

"When did you come back, Antonia-san?" Hinako asked.

"Eh?!" Lieselotte gasped. "Frau Markgräffin Hinako, you know her name?!"

"Liese-chan, Onii-tama's other-self made those names, remember?!"

The blonde native of Budzieszowce in northwest Poland blushed as her sister snickered. "Definitely, I must meet this admiral we've heard such wonderful rumours about since we all started coming back like this," the namesake of old Silesia now known as Antonia von Wettin declared as she crossed her arms. "How was this battle we've heard happened in Nordkorea, Bismarck?! From what we overheard before we sensed Pommern and Lützow come back to duty again, it was quite the show."

Luisa nodded. "Ja, it was, Tante Toni," she declared, making Antonia blush as badly as her sister had done when she had been called "mother" by the adopted native of Schönhausen. As Hinako snickered at the old linienschiff's embarrassment from such a familial form of address, the reborn fast battleship added, "You'll have to be briefed on how much things have changed and what's facing us in the next day or so concerning the lar'beke!" As both Monika and Antonia tensed on hearing the Yizibajohei term for the so-called "children of the gods", Luisa smirked. "A battle is soon to come over the homeworld of the Oni who 'invaded' us last autumn. If it plays out right as planned now, we'll wipe them right out of Existence itself, just as the creator of our new bodies intended five millennia ago!"

Antonia cackled as Monika drooled. "Oh, I hope there are LOADS of those snakes available to eat!" the latter declared as she wiggled her fingers in hopes getting her hands on some choice symbiotes.

"U-chan got a big magical snaky for you to eat, Monika-san!" Hinako assured.

Both veterans of the High Seas Fleet's zweite Geschwader's vierte Division blinked before they moaned. "Don't tell me those lazy-arse magicals are also causing issues!" Antonia demanded.

"Well..."

"Oh, my Heavens! Where did a cute girl like you come from?!"

Hinako blinked...

...then she gasped as she was snared into the embrace of a beaming woman looking to be in her mid-twenties, dressed in an older-style jumpsuit in medium blue with white belt and boots, the crest of the ship that revolutionized naval warfare nearly a decade before the outbreak of the "war to end all wars" now over her heart. She was a woman with straight blonde hair to her shoulders, hazel eyes peeking out of a well-shaped face. As Hinako blushed on sensing how much the reborn first modern battleship instantly became quite enamoured with her — which reminded her a lot of how much Yamamoto Reiko reacted when she was close to the native of Niigata — both Lieselotte and Melanie exchanged looks. "'Lolicon'?" the latter then whispered to the former as all the capital ships present beamed at this first meeting between the Living Spirit of Innocence and the reborn sixth HMS _Dreadnought_.

The former shrugged...

...before the moaning scream of someone soaring towards them at very high speed from high overhead and from somewhere off to the west made heads snap over...

_**KK-KLONK!**_

The woman having been hailed by the Conservator a month ago as Emma Bacon screamed in shock as the flying form of a VERY muscular teenage man rammed her, she reflexively letting go of Hinako as she was flung by the impact right towards the Danish coastline many kilometres to the east! All the reborn post-1906 battleships gasped on seeing that before blooms of apocalyptic heat escaped them all.

"_**WHO — BLOODY — HELL — DID — THAT?!**_" Charlene shrilled for them all.

The non-dreadnoughts present all winced...

* * *

_**Thyborøn, the Mindeparken for Jyllandsslaget, minutes later...**_

"That...wasn't...very nice...!"

Gritting her teeth, the adopted native of Portsmouth moaned as she slowly picked herself up from the nice rut in the sandy ground close to the tall stern-shaped granite stone surrounded by humanoid-shaped statuettes memorializing the dead of the battlecruiser HMS _Queen Mary_ during the early stages of the greatest naval battle in history. As shouts from nearby heralded the arrival of some of the people who had come to the Jutland Memorial Park to view the monuments to the twenty-six ships and the 8,645 officers and sailors reported lost that cloudy late spring day in 1916, Emma Bacon got back to her feet. "Who was...the rude idiot...that hit me...?" the reborn first modern battleship demanded...

"Dreadnought...?!"

Emma perked, then she looked to her right...

...before seeing the morose-looking woman standing next to the monument made for her and her lost men. Noting the gold uniform with the dark blue belt and boots, Emma focused on the crest over the heart of the woman with the long straight dirty blonde hair and the blue-grey eyes. "Queen Mary?!"

The reborn modified version of the Lion-class battlecruiser who had been the second capital ship lost at Jutland slowly nodded before she gazed anew on the slab of concrete with her name and statistics on it. By then, a smiling elderly man reached Emma to help her out of the furrow in the ground she just made. "Kommandør Prowse came here about an hour ago, Kommandør," Paul Cederdorff, the local artist who had created the memorials to all the dead of Jutland, stated as Emma moved to brush her sleeves and buttocks off. "Several of the others who were sunk during the Jyllandsslaget have also come back as flådepiger such as yourself. They're either inside the museum or here in the park..."

"Was ist hier gerade passiert?!"

Both Emma and Chelsey Prowse turned...

...as three women bearing the heater shield crests more befitting to German warships than the crowned circular badges of Commonwealth ships came over from the memorial set nearby for the lost of SMS _Lützow_, they led by a stern-looking woman with wavy cornstalk blonde hair and stormy grey eyes. Said woman had a golden shield with a black stepladder on it over her heart, that on a black jumpsuit with golden belt and boots; her sisters — whom Emma immediately realized were the reborn SM Schiffe _Derfflinger_ and _Hindenburg_, both having been scuttled in Scapa Flow in 1919 after the Great War ended — had the crests and colours on their clothes matching their own bugwappen over their hearts.

Before either British shipgirl could respond, Cederdorff bowed his head to the reborn battlecruiser that had been Franz von Hipper's flagship at Jutland before she had to be scuttled due to too much battle damage. "Something made the good kommandør crash here just a moment ago, Kommandør von Lützow," the artist declared before he gazed on Emma's crest, then his eyes went wide. "Oh, my...!"

That made Sophia von Derfflinger, Anastasia von Lützow and Annamaria von Beneckendorff focus directly on the blue-and-white crest with the armoured hand rising from the waves holding a skeleton key, then they read the name in the box under the naval coronet before their eyes went wide in shock. "Großtante Dreadnought?!" the reborn flagship of the erste Aufklärungsgruppe exclaimed before they snapped to attention, clicking their boots in the proper Prussian manner as they gave her hand salutes. "Schlachtkreuzer Lützow, Derfflinger und Hindenburg zu Ihren Diensten!" Anastasia formally declared.

Emma nodded with her own hand salute as she interpreted that statement in English thanks to her battle suit's omniversal translation capabilities, trying best not to hide the smile she wanted to make at being called "grant-aunt" by the German shipgirl. Even when she was a steel warship, she had sensed the aura of reverence all capital vessels built in her wake seemed to project when they were close to her, no doubt in respect to her being the first modern all-big gun ship-of-the-line, which gave Britain an advantage over rivals before the building race began that helped contribute to the Great War. "Good to see you under much more pleasant circumstances after all these years, ladies," the adopted native of Portsmouth declared as arms were lowered, then she perked as she gazed on the blonde battlecruiser to her starboard aft. "Mary?! Where the devil are Vince and Indie?! They were lost at Jutland..."

"Right here, old woman!"

Emma turned as two women with the same general body-build as what Chelsey and the three German schlachtkreuzer possessed came up to join them from the direction of the north end of the memorial park. The first of the pair had a gold jumpsuit with blue belt and boots, the coronet-and-trident crest of the first battlecruiser on her breast; she had long straight silver-blonde hair combed down over her left shoulder, blue eyes peeking out of a kissable face. Her companion had the wreathed lion of HMS _Indefatigable_ over her heart, that on a dark blue jumpsuit with gold buff belt and boots; she had wavy dark brown hair styled to her shoulders, also possessing blue eyes on a face that seemed perfect for smiling. "Did you come here after this Conservator chap gave you your new hulls, girls?"

Before either Lauren Cay or Florence Sowerby could answer...

"_F-f-freaks...!_"

Heads snapped towards the nearby seashore...

"_**THERE HE IS!**_"

The heads of the reborn veterans of the Great War snapped up...

...before Emma winced on seeing THIRTY-THREE British dreadnoughts and SEVEN battlecruisers floating in the sky close to where a certain native of Little Whinging in Surrey just crashed into the sandy ground, they joined by NINETEEN German schlachtschiffe and THREE additional schlachtkreuzer, all of them cracking their knuckles in anticipation as they glared murderously at the still-dazed Dudley Dursley, the blooms of outrage burning around their bodies as bright as the Sun itself! "Oi! Warspite! Is that bastard the one who dared hit _**Dreadnought**_?!" a chestnut-eyed woman with well-styled crimson hair that Emma immediately realized was the reborn HMS _Orion_ demanded as she glared at the regal blonde woman floating in the midst of her sister Queen Elizabeth-class fast dreadnoughts.

"The same, Orion!" the adopted native of Devonport said, blue eyes aflame with outrage as she gave the recovering Amok Terror a look that would see him turned into ashes if she possessed that ability.

"Then let's upbraid this tollwütiger Hund for his gross disrespect towards Großmutter, meine Freundinnen!" the woman with the tanned skin, blonde-fringed shaggy dark brown hair and the pale grey eyes bearing the badge of SMS _Friedrich der Große_, flagship of the High Seas Fleet at Jutland, snarled as murderous smiles crossed the face of her sister Kaiser-class dreadnoughts.

"_**LADIES!**_"

Heads snapped over to let the reborn Royal Navy and Imperial Navy warships gaze towards the reborn HMS _Dreadnought_. "This is a _**memorial park**_, girls!" Emma snapped before she pointed out towards the North Sea. "Take the fool away from here before you go discipline him!"

"_**AYE-AYE!/JAWOHL!**_"

Within a minute, Rose Potter's cousin soon learned that angering a FLEET of battleship/battlecruiser shipgirls — each with the average metaphysical mass of 25,000 tonnes! — was NOT the thing to do...!

* * *

_**Gashleycrumb House, the cafeteria, an hour after supper...**_

"Dear God...!"

Hearing that from the corporal in charge of the evening meal for the orphans of Gashleycrumb, the mauve-haired metahuman chef from Nagoya looked over her shoulder. "Is there something wrong?"

"How the DEVIL did you cook all THAT, Miss Osamu?!" the dazed chef wondered.

Taking a moment to absorb that in, Osamu Shirayuki giggled as she winked at him. "Himitsu desu no!" the Great Chef of the West, _**Syuosekuo**_ ("_**Küchenchefin**_"), declared before she picked up the plate of freshly-cooked scones from the serving table, then she walked over to where her half-sister Hatoyama Rinrin was now seated beside Titus Kenney, who had teamed with Neville Wolf and Hector Eliot to do modifications to many recently-reborn shipgirls' uniforms, ensuring pennant numbers were displayed in the proper fashion on their thighs for identification in the upcoming battle against the Goa'uld over Uru. "Is everything okay here, Rinrin-chan?" she asked as she placed the plate on a nearby table.

The Technological Sorceress of the East, _**Kamluo**_ ("_**Schmiede**_"), chuckled as several members of the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet came over to get extra biscuits. "Well...!"

"I'll come out and say it, Miss Hatoyama," the Guiding Thinker of the North vowed as he reached over to squeeze her shoulder in reassurance, then he gazed on the reborn HMS _Dreadnought_, who gladly dove in to taste the freshly-baked scones made by the younger sister of the young man-turned-woman who had effectively launched the Second Metahuman Age on Earth over the previous decade. "With all due respect, Captain Bacon, what in the name of God were people who thought up these pennant numbers SMOKING when they came up with the actual order you'd be listed?!" Here, the native of Kensington waved to his laptop, where the list of all the battleships and battlecruisers built in the wake of HMS _Dreadnought_ — ordered by pennant number, ship-name and human name — was displayed. "Why couldn't we do what the Germans and Americans did and do everything in order of construction?!"

Hearing that, the adopted native of Portsmouth shrugged, an amused chuckle escaping her as Shirayuki headed back to the kitchen to see if there was anything else she could make. "Who knows what went through the heads of those 'geniuses' in Whitehall, Mister Eliot," Emma Bacon answered before she exchanged knowing looks with Lauren Cay. Of course, the first all-big gun battleship could understand where the poor man was coming from in the end. Using herself as an example, she had been granted pennant **00** at the start of the Great War, which was changed to **56** in January of 1918 and **73** in April that year, around the time she had been reassigned from air defence duties on the Thames approaches to London back to the Grand Fleet then staging from Scapa Flow. Fortunately for her, the world's first battlecruiser never had to endure that sort of administrative cock-up; she kept her pennant number **85** from the start of the war until her sinking late in the afternoon of the last day of May in 1916.

"Well, at least we got the names and numbers in a relative order...though a lot of the post-Great War battleships will have to get used to new pennant numbers," the Master Programmer declared as he looked over to where Jean Leach and Louise Teck were now standing among the veterans of the Battlecruiser Force as they explained what had happened during the Second World War. The former HMS _Prince of Wales_ had born the pennant **53** from commissioning to sinking; as that pennant had once been given to HMS _Agincourt_ during the Great War; the adopted native of Birkenhead and Caernarfon had been given the new pennant **46**. As for her younger sistership, Louise had pennant **17** during the war; with what the Unending League's local hyper-geniuses had just done, the adopted native of Clydebank near Glasgow (her place of construction) and Kings Langley north of London (the original home of the first Duke of York from the fourteenth century) now had pennant **07**.

"Fortunately, Captain Cunningham won't have to respond to pennant '**8A**' anymore," he added as he gazed over to another part of the room, where the five members of the Revenge-class battleships, the last dreadnought design built during the Great War, had gathered to exchange sea stories and catch up on the over half-century of history they had missed out after they had been scrapped...or in the case of Kimberly Maclachlan, the reborn HMS _Royal Oak_, since she was sunk with over half her ship's company in Scapa Flow thanks to a daring U-boat attack during the first months of the Second World War. Having joined them were their two "half-sisters" of the Renown-class battlecruisers.

Eyes locked on Rose Cunningham, the reborn HMS _Resolution_. The adopted native of Jarrow in County Durham on the northeast coast of England now sported the new pennant number **81** on her blood-red jumpsuit, said numbers having been etched on the thighs of everyone's suits in the proper white-bordered black as what appeared on modern Royal Navy warships. She was gazing with considerable apprehension at the image of the next vessel to bear her name and battle honours, which was the United Kingdom's first nuclear ballistic missile submarine, as said vessel's capabilities were spelled out in gory detail thanks to Mycroft Holmes' chief aide Anthea McAllister. Also looking quite ill in the mainmast as they absorbed the sheer destructive power of the modern-day equivalent to the dreadnoughts of old were Renée Tennant, her elder sister Raven Tennyson-d'Eyncourt and Rebecca Kiddle; respectfully, they were the battlecruisers _Repulse_ and _Renown_ and battleship _Revenge_.

"Finding out about boomer boats, huh?!"

Everyone turned as Victor Dyer came up to join them, nibbling on some freshly-made muffins the chefs baked for the orphans of Gashleycrumb before Osamu Shirayuki arrived with her trofikinetic abilities and her skill at cooking for massive numbers in a short time. "Yeah, Vic, they are," Neville breathed out as the current incarnation of the Sonic Cyclone, _**R'bemgu**_ ("_**Richter**_") sat down. "Even if the war ladies like them were built to fight in was nasty enough, it doesn't equal what MAD could do."

"'MAD'?" Lauren asked, her eyebrow arching in curiosity.

"'Mutual assured destruction', Captain Cay," Hector translated. "It was a vow made between the Yanks and the Russkies during the Cold War that if someone started crap with nukes, the other side would respond, which could have wound up destroying all of humanity." He then shook his head. "Thank God that the Dawn of Power didn't see something like THAT unleashed on everyone!"

Rinrin wryly chuckled as she gazed on her brother hyper-geniuses. "Well, as soon as the First Great Fight Scenes started, a lot of technokinetics — my first-self being one! — went and shot what ICBMs were on the planet into space to prevent them from being used on people, Hector-kun."

Emma and Lauren shuddered as they considered what such weapons were like. Thanks to their souls having merged with first-generation battle dolls, they had memories of Yiziba's equivalent to the Second Great Expulsion on Earth, the time saw the Goa'uld driven from the third world of Sol thanks to both the Undying Lord and the Immortal Master five millennia ago. The power their other-selves unleashed on the Goa'uld then trying to seize the Great Crystal of Power for their uses was awful...but such battles had been confined to deep space, well away from the descendants of those who had been transplanted from Earth to the World of the Forge by the Sagussans millennia earlier. Both shipgirls knew that if they unleashed their offensive capabilities on civilian populations, such could make the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 look like a calm sea breeze in comparison; they and their fellow Great War veterans on both sides of the North Sea gained the knowledge of what went down in the Second World War beyond what those of their number who served in that conflict dealt with thanks to the telepathic powers shipgirls gained in lieu of their secure wireless communication systems...

"Excuse me, meine liebe Schwester..."

People turned as a tanned, sultry beauty with centre-parted wavy brown hair to her shoulders came up to join them, her huntress-like chestnut brown eyes glittering with some amusement. Like her effective equivalent in the Royal Navy, the first German dreadnought was in a more traditional sleeved jumpsuit, dark blue overall with safety orange belt and boots, the gold-trimmed blue shield dotted with gold billets and embossed with the golden lion of Nassau over her heart. Of course, given that the German pennant numbering system had been always done in Ordnung from the beginning, the reborn SMS _Nassau_ had the number **25** in black-shadowed white on her upper thighs. "What is it, Nassau?"

The woman who had been hailed by the Conservator as Wilfreda von Nassau-Weilburg smirked before she gazed upon two of the sisters of the Trickster of the Show; Shirayuki had come over from the kitchen after noting that the evening shift of chefs had all in hand to join Rinrin. "Your pardon, meine Freundinnen, for disturbing you at this time while you're busy speaking to your friends here, but what on Earth did you do to that poor Flugzeugträger that came with Hannover's daughter and her friends from your little island in Japan? She's been acting like a shy kitten when it comes to all of us..."

"Euer Erlaucht?! Wo sind Sie?! Geht es dir gut?!"

Hearing that loud voice with its very elegant mixture of Ripuarisch Mitteldeutsch German and Higashi Kantō-ben Japanese from her place at one corner of the cafeteria, Luisa von Bismarck moaned as paid footfalls echoed from the nearby hallway. "Oh, nein...not THAT, Amélie...!" she hissed.

The other veterans of the Kriegsmarine tried not to snicker as they watched Amélie von Zeppelin get up from her chair to greet a smiling woman who moved with the same regal flair Itō Mutsuko and her sister Yoiko showed to the veterans of the Grand Fleet and High Seas Fleet after they shifted to London to augment the defences of Gashleycrumb from potential outside attack, not to mention get caught up on nearly a century of history. Like all the Gifted within Gashleycrumb, she was in her red-trimmed white combat uniform, battle staff in hand. After exchanging bows, Tenhiro Haruka headed over, stopping to give a courtly bow to the reborn SMS _Friedrich der Große_, now Christine von Hohenzollern.

"Eure Durchlaucht, willkommen zurück," the native of Düsseldorf declared in German, making Christine gape in shock at being addressed effectively as "Your Serene Highness" by the Quarterstaff Mistress, _**Kaeku**_ ("_**Fauchard**_"). "I bear messages from Their Excellencies the Bundespräsident and the Bundeskanzlerin, plus a message from His Imperial and Royal Highness, the Prince of Prussia, who is more than overjoyed that the noble spirits who served his late great-great-grandfather the Kaiser have returned to defend all of humanity from the many threats that face us all." She then produced three rolled scrolls of the finest paper wrapped in bows, presenting them with both hands. "Please..."

Blinking as she took that in, the adopted native of Berlin and Hamburg accepted the scrolls as her elder sister Victoria — the reborn SMS _Kaiser_ — came up to take two of them so the flagship of the High Seas Fleet could read the one bearing the ribbon and wax badge of the House of Hohenzollern. After a moment, Christine's eyes teared in disbelief before she perked on sensing everyone in the room gazing her way. "We've been accepted..." she hissed, making all the others tense. "The Prince...!"

"What did he write, Freddi?!" Wilfreda demanded.

Haruka giggled. "If I may...?" she offered.

Christina's head bobbed as she tried not to keel over and faint in shock. With that, the Quarterstaff Mistress turned to gaze on the reborn first dreadnought of Germany. "It is quite simple, Eure Durchlaucht," she declared, making the adopted native of Wiesbaden and Wilhelmshaven gape at her. "Save for the schnelle Schlachtschiffe of your brave formation..." — she tried not to grin as all the German battlecruisers blushed madly at being called "fast battleships" by the native of Düsseldorf — "...all of you are named after the great princely states that united in 1870 to form modern Germany. Because of that, Anigimi-sama's other-self created names for your counterparts that made you spiritual kin to the heads of the great houses that ruled those states over the centuries. Thus — given how quickly the kami of warships have started to return as schiffsmädchen since Hinako-chan introduced Fujiko-chan at the White House a couple days ago — His Imperial and Royal Highness contacted his fellow heads of houses as well as Bundeskanzlerin Merkel to have you legally adopted into those families. Thus, to use yourself as an example, Eure Durchlaucht..." — her eyes twinkled as Wilfreda began to sweat — "...your name and rank in legal matters is 'Kapitän zur See Wilfreda Amalie Kriemhild, _**Fürstin**_ von Nassau-Weilburg'." She bowed again to the reborn dreadnought.

Amélie nodded in approval as all of Wilfreda's fellow veterans found themselves sweating. "At least now I know how to properly address people," the aircraft carrier declared. "This is truly good."

Eyes locked on the adopted native of Konstanz, Friedrichshafen and Kiel before Luisa moaned as she bumped her head on the table. Watching that reaction, the members of the Unending League present sent questioning looks at Rinrin and Shirayuki, who gave them helpless shrugs in return...

* * *

_**The director's office, that time...**_

"Lieber Gott...if you didn't show me their mechanisms, I'd swear they were normal people!" Pausing for a moment as she peered into the eyes of the bespectacled blue-eyed gynoid with the lavender-shaded red hair to her shoulders standing at attention before her desk, Andrea Slaed concentrated as she used her well-honed mage senses to reach out and do a detail look-over of Hiiragi Anne, the former Japanese classics teacher at Tomobiki High School that had been one of Moroboshi Ataru's many Shōzoki "dates" in the months between his separation from his twin/other-self and his Gifting. "Even most magicals wouldn't be able to tell the difference between yourself and a natural-born person, Frau Hiiragi," the band mistress of the Schwarze Mädchen stated as she moved to relax on the edge of her new work desk. "Are you sure you're willing to work here? Much less your sisters who came with you today?"

Anne smiled as she and her companions relaxed themselves. Even if they had been as free as possible for their kind with their making judicious use of her former student as a sex-friend to keep their internal programming stable and their own minds free of influence of those of their kind who were enslaved to the planet-wide controlling nexus called "Mother", there were certain ingrained programs within their artificial souls — the Shōzoki synthetic equivalent of the social norms organics always learned as they grew up — that triggered automatically in certain situations. Gazing at her transformed former student in his uniform now marking him as the Healer of Women's Hearts, _**Gamr'buo**_ ("_**Rake**_"), Anne tried not to blush as she recalled the times she had Ataru alone with her in their classroom — with the help of a local null-time mesonium crystal provided by one of his reality-warping friends, Suzumiya Haruhi, the Mistress of Time and Space, _**R'buttuo**_ (the "_**Weaver**_") — so they could enjoy "remedial detention" together. Unlike the times that Ataru's would-be "wife" Redet Lum had tried to corner him for a pillow scene, he ALWAYS was able to perform perfectly for the gynoid teacher.

"It's to your advantage in many ways, Captain," the adopted native of Naha in Okinawa answered; her original identity made her part-American. "It's most likely that Miss Saint Clair's wing of the Unending League will be asked to serve as hosts for the reborn members of the Grand Fleet and any other British shipgirl who isn't permanently 'based' with Ataru and his sisters on Ōmure-jima. You and they will need help as you guide them in adjusting to being human; while they'll be able to survive dealing with Goa'uld tomorrow evening over Uru, what happens next? Also, given the sheer level of trauma your present charges have suffered thanks to your distant cousin and his subordinates over the years, there is the strong chance that indiscretions could happen. Look at Captain Bacon's reaction to Hinako, for example. Given how powerful shipgirls are, especially if they were originally capital ships..."

People in the room winced as they considered that. Given that the average shipgirl possessed the ability to dead-lift the CUBE of their wartime displacement in Earth gravity, there were very few people on the planet these days who would have the ability to stop them if they "went heel". And while people such as Emma Bacon were obviously influenced by the stricter social norms of the Edwardian Era when they were built, their confusion concerning modern social norms could get them into a lot of trouble if they didn't have a strong guiding hand. And simply put, there would be enough Japanese shipgirls on Ōmure-jima with Ataru and his sisters to deal with without having to worry about _**foreign**_ shipgirls!

"Well, I'm sure arrangements can be made," Andrea then concluded as she lowered her wand; she had used it to do a detailed scan of the gynoids. "I assume you're proofed against most forms of magic."

"Practically anything that isn't mesonium-powered, Captain," Ogasawara Hiromi answered. The former head of a talent agency in Nerima that befriended Ataru in early May after the Golden Week incident concerning the dream demon Mujaki, the elegant gynoid with the same shade of hair Anne possessed — tied in a shaggy ponytail, long bangs framing her ears — and the smoky grey eyes would serve as chief of staff at Gashleycrumb. "No Unforgivables could affect us, though concussive and cutting magic could damage us. Since we're all in possession of Lawgivers, we have the ability to retaliate hard."

"How soon can the kobaloi get the wards set up here, Slaed-taii?" Ataru asked.

Andrea tried not to blush while giving him a glancing look. She had been twenty-five when she "died" at Nurmengard, when her soul was shifted via an artificial version of the tre'cha process Avalonians possessed into her replacement body, secured safely inside a cave within the mountainside close to the former base of Gellert Grindelwald near the Austro-Italian border forty kilometres north-northwest of Bolzano. Thanks to the unique vagaries of Sagussan genetics, the native of Dortmund awoke five years ago thanks to her ultimate rescuer — during the Wars of Liberation that paralleled the Second World War, the Undying Lord had seized THOUSANDS of non-templated bioroid bodies from Niphentaxian observers based across Europe, learning how they could be employed along the way — to find herself in a body that made her look as she did when she graduated from the Nibelung Academy of Magic near Worms in 1938! And while Ataru now had his own level of maturity thanks to the collected memories of his past-selves, her own sensibilities balked LOUDLY at the idea of being intimate to him.

Clearly, "liberal" Shōzoki had no such inhibitions...!

"The basic wards and notice me-not charms were set up when I arrived here," she answered. "Now that things are more quiet, the warders will arrive late this evening to get it all finished..."

A knock echoed from the door. People turned as a blushing third form girl peeked into the office. Clara Hall was the current incarnation of the Purger of Death, _**Bier'boke**_ ("_**Forcer**_"). A touch broadcast empath/telekinetic with the ability to literally "push" any form of sickness out of a person's body, the native of Sutton-in-Ashfield near Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire was the team healer at Gashleycrumb. It was her intervention that had prevented at least a dozen deaths at the orphanage since the start of the current school year. "What is it, Fraulein Hall?" Andrea asked as she gazed at the slender girl with the blue eyes and the wavy dirty blonde hair spilling down to her shoulders.

"Sorry to bother you, Headmistress, but Captain de Lerici just discovered what I think is a battleship from our side of the North Sea now in the wine cellar," Clara said, an amused smile crossing her face. "Couldn't read her name, but her crest had some sort of antelope on it." She shrugged. "She's knocking back the gin Lestrange stored there like it was tap water. I'm not sure if she's getting drunk..."

Ataru moaned. "If Paola can get sloshed on ice wine, this one will DEFINITELY get drunk on gin, even if she IS a battleship!" he muttered as he moved to follow the younger woman out. "Lay on, Macduff!"

"And damned be him who first cries, 'Hold! Enough!'" Clara finished the often misquoted line from _Macbeth_ as she guided the Healer of Women's Hearts to a nearby stairwell that led to the basement.

Soon passing by one of the old storage rooms which currently occupied Sherlock Holmes' attention — he having been joined at this time by both Zinnia Schubert and Yotsuba Dunn as they tore apart the rooms from where orphans were made to disappear over the last few years, they being helped by a mixed normal/magical forensics team — the Purger of Death and the Healer of Women's Hearts made a right turn before descending into the sub-basement level, where the food storage rooms had been placed in a relatively cool environment. Like other parts of Gashleycrumb, the food lockers had claimed their fair share of orphans over the years thanks to desperate kids getting into them to get at the stores, poisoning themselves along the way due to everything from mouldy food to actual drugs left out in the open to trap the unsuspecting; Jim Bellairs lost his best friend thanks to consuming potash lye pellets one night, no doubt mistaking same for mint candies. Before they could reach the end of the hallway where the liquor rooms were located, a voice called out, "Something wrong?"

Both teenagers turned to see Maria Dreyer standing there, cross-armed. Her three sisters Henriette Poincaré, Helen Tothill and Edith Fergusson stood with her, all looking tense and ready for action. Of course, as had almost all the reborn Grand Fleet dreadnoughts and battlecruisers been so attired, the reborn Orion-class super-dreadnoughts were in traditional sleeved battlesuits colour-coded to the crests placed over their breasts, pennant numbers on their upper thighs: Dark blue with gold belt and boots and pennant **52** for Maria (_Orion_), red with gold belt and boots and pennant **55** for Henriette (_Monarch_), white with red belt and boots with pennant **06** for Helen (_Conqueror_) and red with tan belt and boots with pennant **32** for Edith (_Thunderer_). Seeing their serious demeanour, Clara hoped the Metropolitan Police Service would be able to make use of the four reborn super-dreadnoughts' services, if not MI5; even if they were now "commissioned" into the Royal Specialized Warfare Fencibles after being welcomed into the Royal Naval Reserve, they didn't have to be on stand-by all the time.

"Don't mind us, Maria-san, but Paola-san just made a friend who happens to share her taste for spirituous liquors," Ataru wryly declared as he gave the adopted native of Portsmouth an amused look. "She wasn't with you when you went to Jutland to go deal with Rose-chan's cousin."

"Oh?! What's she drinking?! They have no bloody rum here!" Helen snarled, her voice layered with the Glaswegian brogue she inherited from her birthplace at Dalmuir near Scotland's largest city, as she put her hands to her hips, tossing her bob-cut slate grey hair about in sullen outrage.

Seeing that, Clara tried not to smirk. It had caused a riot among many returned British shipgirls when Charlene Boleyn dropped the bombshell about there NOT being any daily rum ration served to non-commissioned members of the senior service these days. After getting that shocker, Helen Tothill and Renée Tennant moved to storm Whitehall to corner the First Sea Lord and get him to reverse such a ghastly regulation; they had been BARELY held back by their sisters Maria Dreyer and Raven Tennyson-d'Eyncourt from making a mess of the Admiralty! "A lot of gin, Helen-san," Ataru answered.

That made the four super-dreadnoughts perk. "'Gin'...?" Edith began.

"Say, that couldn't be...!" Henriette wondered.

Maria groaned. "Bloody floating _**gin palace**_...!" she snarled as she moved past the teenagers.

One savage kick with her boot later to turn the steel door into a twisted mess of metal, the adopted native of Devonport looked in before she put her fists to her hips. "_**CATHARINE GISELA KISMET PLANTAGENET!**_" she shrilled at the top of her lungs. "_**WHAT IN THE QUEEN'S NAME ARE YOU DOING DOWN **_**HERE**_**?! WHY DIDN'T YOU RENDEZVOUS WITH THE REST OF US AT JUTLAND?!**_"

Hearing that scream from the former flagship of the Second Battle Squadron's second division at Jutland, the dazed and clearly intoxicated twenty-something woman with the Mediterranean tanned skin, the dark brown eyes and the wavy dirty blonde hair blinked as she looked over from drinking with the third Zara-class heavy cruiser, then a hiccough escaped her before she visibly winced while reaching for her ear, her cheeks flush with the levels of gin and other liquors she had consumed over the last while. "Bloody hell, Orion! Do you have to be so damned LOUD?!" the adopted native of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Bursa in Turkey and Newcastle upon Tyne wondered, her melodious voice denoting her very unique origins: She was built originally for Brazil as Encouraçado _Rio de Janeiro_, then was later sold to the Ottoman Empire as Yüce Limanın Gemisi _Sulṭān 'Osmān-i Evvel_, ultimately being seized at the start of the Great War by Britain and commissioned as His Majesty's Ship _Agincourt_.

"Forgive my wonderful friend here, mio amato Ammiraglio, but given what happened to her when she was being built, her confusion over what she really would be haunts her far too much for her to take," Paola di Lerici declared, her own cheeks quite flush after discovering the considerable wine stores at this place. Fortunately for Ataru's blood pressure, the adopted native of Pula at the tip of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia hadn't moved to slip off her black-and-white jumpsuit to get more "comfortable" while she drank, just like her crew had done during the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941.

The reborn RM _Pola_ then grinned as she reached behind her back to produce a bottle that made the four super-dreadnoughts gape in shocked disbelief. "Presto!"

"_**GIMMIE!**_" Helen shrieked as she lunged for one of the wooden grog demijohns the reborn heavy cruiser had found in the cellar when she teleported in to explore the wine stores.

"_**CONKS!**_" Maria screamed in shocked disbelief at her sister's move to get a tot while Henrietta smirked in amusement and Edith fell on her buttocks screaming in laughter.

As a beaming Catharine Plantagenet de Janeiro e 'Osmān helped place the priceless tub bearing the well-stored mixture of lemon juice, water, cinnamon and five well-blended varieties of West Indies rum on the deck for Helen to partake, Ataru and Clara shared an amused look...

_**To Be Continued...**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

Translation list: **Merkel-Raute** — Literally "Merkel's rhombus", this is a gesture where fingertips of both hands are brought together over the stomach, index fingers and thumbs forming a diamond-like shape; **Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū** — School of the Path of the Supreme Life, the in-house school of ninjutsu that the Moroboshi Clan practices in my stories; **Taisa** — Navy captain/Army colonel/Air Force group captain (NATO rank code OF-5); **Dhármachakra** — The Wheel of Fate that determines one's future existence in the next life according to Buddhist myth; **Leichenblut Schweinhunde** — Literally "corpse-blood pig-dog", this counter to the insult of "mudblood" created by the Schwarze Mädchen combined the German language's most wounding insult with the rough equivalent of "staleblood"; **Oishii da** — It's so good; **Flaggschiff** — Flagship; **Schiffsmädchen** — Shipgirls; **Kasa-tama** — Mister Umbrella (in Hinako-speak); **Mutti** — Mommy; **Markgräffin** — Literally "countess of the march", the German equivalent of a British marchioness; **Ersatz** — Substitute; **Linienschiff** — Ship of the line, the German type name for a pre-dreadnought battleship; **Westpreußen** — West Prussia, which was the area of old Prussia around Danzig (today Gdansk); **Wielkopolskie** — Greater Poland, the area of west-central Poland around Poznań (known as "Posen" in German); **Nordkorea** — North Korea; **Tante** — Aunt; **Lar'beke** — Snake leech; **Zweite Geschwader** — Second Squadron; **Vierte Division** — Fourth Division; **Mindeparken for Jyllandsslaget** — Battle of Jutland Memorial Park; **Kommandør** — Commander, the Danish rank title for a navy captain; **Flådepiger** — Fleet girls; **Was ist hier gerade passiert?** — What happened here?; **Schiffe** — Plural of "schiff" (ship); **Großtante** — Grandaunt; **Erste Aufklärungsgruppe** — First Scouting Group; **Schlachtkreuzer** — Battlecruiser(s); **Zu Ihren Diensten** — At your service; **Schlachtschiffe** — Plural of **schlachtschiff** (battleship); **Tollwütiger Hund** — Rabid dog; **Großmutter** — Grandmother; **Meine Freundinnen** — My (lady) friends; **Himitsu desu no** — It's a secret (in Shirayuki-speak); **Meine liebe Schwester** — My beloved sister; **Eure Erlaucht** — Your Illustrious (Highness); **Wo sind Sie?** — Where are you?; **Geht es dir gut** — Are you alright; **Ripuarisch Mitteldeutsch** — Ripuarian Central German, the dialect spoken around Düsseldorf; **Higashi Kantō-ben** — East Kantō Dialect, the dialect spoken around Tōkyō; **Eure Durchlaucht** — Literally "Your Serenity" (or Your Serene Highness); **Willkommen zurück** — Welcome back; **Bundespräsident** — Federal President; **Bundeskanzlerin** — Federal (lady) Chancellor; **Taii** — Navy lieutenant/Army captain/Air Force flight lieutenant (NATO rank code OF-2); **Mio amato Ammiraglio** — My beloved admiral.

Shipgirls appearing or mentioned in this story (again in sections):

**Fukushima Fujiko**-chūsa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Fubuki**_ [KK-156])  
**Fukushima Shiroko**-chūsa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Shinonome**_ [KK-161])  
**Fukushima Suzuki**-chūsa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Usugumo**_ [KK-162])  
**Fukushima Shinobu**-chūsa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Shirakumo**_ [KK-163])  
**Kisaragi Utako**-chūsa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Uzuki**_ [KK-147])

As effectively indicated above, **THG **_**Shinonome**_ (**Fukushima Shiroko**), **THG **_**Usugumo**_ (**Fukushima Suzuki**) and **THG **_**Shirakumo**_ (**Fukushima Shinobu**) have yet to be introduced in _Kantai Collection_. Of course, **THG **_**Fubuki**_ (**Fukushima Fujiko**) is one of the five starter shipgirls of the _KanColle_ game and the star of the anime series. **THG **_**Uzuki**_ (**Kisaragi Utako**) was introduced into the game in 2014 as a "drop" shipgirl who can be brought into the player's fleet during the game's World Two events. Naturally, Fujiko and Utako take after their _KanColle_ interpretations. If they enter my stories, Shiroko, Suzuki and Shinobu would take after other games' interpretations of their eldest sisters (respectively, _Warship Girls_, _Victory Belles_ and _Azur Lane_). Naturally, Shinobu will NOT look like a kitsune or oni as is normally done with shipgirls in _Azur Lane_ hailing from the "Sakura Empire".

**Itō Shizuka**-taisa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Shinano**_ [KB-41])  
**Itō Yoiko**-taisa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Yonaga**_ [KB-11])  
**Yamamoto Reiko**-taisa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Nagato**_ [DS-23])  
**Itō Yasuko**-taisa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Yamato**_ [DS-35])  
**Itō Mutsuko**-taisa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Musashi**_ [DS-36])

**THG **_**Nagato**_ (**Yamamoto Reiko**), **THG **_**Yamato**_ (**Itō Yasuko**) and **THG **_**Musashi**_ (**Itō Mutsuko**) are playable characters in _KanColle_. **THG **_**Shinano**_ (**Itō Shizuka**) has yet to appear in _KanColle_, but her design has appeared in the official dōjinshi _**Teitoku no Natsuyasumi**_ and _**Teitoku no Fuyuyasumi**_; there, she is addressed as a "future asset". **THG **_**Yonaga**_ (**Itō Yoiko**) is a shipgirl version of the namesake aircraft carrier that appeared in the late Peter Albano's action adventure novel series _**The Seventh Carrier**_; this series was one of my early influences when it came to writing my own stories. In the main story, Yoiko made her appearance in Part Twelve; she also was the namesake to my earlier _KanColle_ fanfic _**The Seventh Shipgirl**_. As note before, in my stories, Japan makes use of an American-style hull classification code system with native terms. **KB** is short for **Kōkū Bokan** ("Aircraft Carrier") while **DS** represents **Dokyū Senkan** ("Dreadnought Battleship").

Captain **Jean Leach** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Prince of Wales**_ [pennant 46])  
Capt **Louise Teck** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Duke of York**_ [pennant 07])  
Capt **Harmony Walker** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Edinburgh**_ [pennant C16])  
Capt **Addison Scott** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Belfast**_ [pennant C35])  
**Akiyama Teruyo**-chūsa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Teruzuki**_ [KK-261])  
**Akiyama Suzumi**-chūsa DNTK (**Tennō Heika Gunkan **_**Suzutsuki**_ [KK-262])

**THG **_**Teruzuki**_ (**Akiyama Teruyo**) and **THG **_**Suzutsuki**_ (**Akiyama Suzumi**) resemble their _KanColle_ interpretations. **HMS **_**Prince of Wales**_ (**Jean Leach**) and **HMS **_**Duke of York**_ (**Louise Teck**) resemble their _Azur Lane_ interpretations; of course, Louise wouldn't have the elfin ears she bears in the game. Note that the pennant numbers given here are the revised ones created by **Hatoyama Rinrin** (**Schmiede**), **Neville Wolf** (**Admin**) and **Hector Eliot** (**Luminary**) as noted above. **HMS **_**Edinburgh**_ (**Harmony Walker**) and **HMS **_**Belfast**_ (**Addison Scott**) both resemble their _Warship Girls_ interpretation; neither of them struck me as the demure maid-types that they're displayed as being in _Azur Lane_! However, should they appear in future stories, the _Azur Lane_ templates of Harmony and Addison will be used by **HMS **_**Manchester**_ (**Hillary Bousfield**) and **HMS **_**Gloucester**_ (**Alisha Rowley**) respectively. Note that British cruisers in World War Two had no pennant superior assigned to hull numbers; the pennant superior **C** was assigned post-war when the whole system was properly rationalized.

Captain **Amy Power** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Ark Royal**_ [pennant R91])  
Kapitän zur See **Amélie von Zeppelin** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Graf Zeppelin**_ [pennant F1])  
KptzS **Luisa von Bismarck-Schönhausen** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Bismarck**_ [pennant 62])  
KptzS **Maria von Tirpitz** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Tirpitz**_ [pennant 63])  
KptzS **Gertrude "Trudl" von Scharnhorst** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Scharnhorst**_ [pennant 60])  
KptzS **Eva Neidhardt von Gneisenau** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Gneisenau**_ [pennant 61])  
Capt **Charlene Boleyn** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Warspite**_ [pennant 57])  
Capt **Mary Hood** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Hood**_ [pennant 51])  
Fregattenkapitän **Melanie Schultz** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z3 Max Schultz**_ [pennant Z3])

**HMS **_**Ark Royal**_ (**Amy Power**), **KMS **_**Graf Zeppelin**_ (**Amélie von Zeppelin**), **KMS **_**Bismarck**_ (**Luisa von Bismarck**), **HMS **_**Warspite**_ (**Charlene Boleyn**) and **KMS **_**Z3 Max Schultz**_ (**Melanie Schultz**) resemble their _KanColle_ interpretations. **KMS **_**Tirpitz**_ (**Maria von Tirpitz**), **KMS **_**Scharnhorst**_ (**Trudl von Scharnhorst**), **KMS **_**Gneisenau**_ (**Eva Neidhardt von Gneisenau**) and **HMS **_**Hood**_ (**Mary Hood**) all resemble their _Azur Lane_ interpretations. Note Amy's pennant number in World War Two was simply **91**; the **R** flag superior was added post-war to denote aircraft carriers in the Royal Navy. Charlene's pennant number in World War Two was **03**; here, she reverts to her first pennant as given during the Great War. Mary keeps her pennant given in 1920. Amélie's flag superior **F** means **Flugzeugträger** ("aircraft carrier") as Germany didn't have any frigates in commission in either world war.

Now, the British **Grand Fleet** (both those named and those hinted at being present)...

Captain **Emma Bacon** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Dreadnought**_ [pennant 00])  
Capt **Heidi Evan-Thomas** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Bellerophon**_ [pennant 72])  
Capt **Trudy Tudor** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Superb**_ [pennant 49])  
Capt **Lucy Duff** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Téméraire**_ [pennant 48])  
Capt **Martha Jervis** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Saint Vincent**_ [pennant 16])  
Capt **Charlotte Collingwood** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Collingwood**_ [pennant 26])  
Capt **Jocelyn Dick** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Vanguard**_ [pennant 39])  
Capt **Vivian Bernard** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Neptune**_ [pennant 02])  
Capt **Renée Pound** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Colossus**_ [pennant 93])  
Capt **Rose Clinton-Baker** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Hercules**_ [pennant 47])  
Capt **Catharine Plantagenet de Janeiro e 'Osmān** RN (AKA **Katrīn 'Osmān**) (formerly Capitão-de-Mar-e-Guerra MB, then Kalyon Kaptanı DAO) (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Agincourt**_ [pennant 53], formerly **Encouraçado **_**Rio de Janeiro**_ [pennant 05], then **Yüce Limanın Gemisi **_**Sulṭān 'Osmān-i Evvel**_ [pennant 07])  
Capt **Maria Dreyer** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Orion**_ [pennant 52])  
Capt **Henriette Poincaré** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Monarch**_ [pennant 55])  
Capt **Helen Tothill** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Conqueror**_ [pennant 06])  
Capt **Edith Fergusson** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Thunderer**_ [pennant 32])  
Capt **Catharine Field** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**King George V**_ [pennant 61])  
Capt **Georgiana Culme-Seymour** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Centurion**_ [pennant 21])  
Capt **Hannah Baird** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Ajax**_ [pennant 40])  
Capt **Chantel Dampier** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Audacious**_ [pennant 54])  
Capt **Sarah Wellesley** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Iron Duke**_ [pennant 94])  
Capt **Joan Churchill **RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Marlborough**_ [pennant 79])  
Capt **Martha Benbow** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Benbow**_ [pennant 75])  
Capt **Eleanor Windsor** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Emperor of India**_ [pennant 11])  
Capt **Jasmine Stanley-Ziyaeddin** RN (AKA **Yeşim Ziyaeddin**) (formerly Kalyon Kaptanı DAO) (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Erin**_ [pennant 56], formerly **Yüce Limanın Gemisi **_**Reşadiye**_ [pennant 04])  
Capt **Elizabeth Tutor** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Queen Elizabeth**_ [pennant 10])  
Capt **Brenda Woollcombe** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Valiant**_ [pennant 34])  
Capt **Jane Middleton-Barham** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Barham**_ [pennant 97])  
Capt **Margaret Swettenham** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Malaya**_ [pennant 31])  
Capt **Rebecca Kiddle** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Revenge**_ [pennant 98])  
Capt **Stefánija Gordéjovna Lévchenko** RN (later Kapitán Pérvovo Ránga VMRSSSR) (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Royal Sovereign**_ [pennant 59], later **Linéjnyj Korábl' **_**Arkhángel'sk**_ [pennant 035])  
Capt **Kimberly Maclachlan** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Royal Oak**_ [pennant 67])  
Capt **Raquel Smith** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Ramillies**_ [pennant 74])  
Capt **Rose Cunningham** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Resolution**_ [pennant 81])  
Capt **Lauren Cay** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Invincible**_ [pennant 83])  
Capt **Elaine Heaton-Ellis** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Inflexible**_ [pennant 84])  
Capt **Wynter Kennedy** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Indomitable**_ [pennant 77])  
Capt **Florence Sowerby** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Indefatigable**_ [pennant 13])  
Capt **Lillian Chatfield** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Lion**_ [pennant 22])  
Capt **Hayden Cowan** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Princess Royal**_ [pennant 29])  
Capt **Chelsey Prowse** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Queen Mary**_ [pennant 14])  
Capt **Brandy Pelly** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Tiger**_ [pennant 42])  
Capt **Raven Tennyson-d'Eyncourt** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Renown**_ [pennant 64])  
Capt **Renée Tennant** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Repulse**_ [pennant 01])

The Orion-class dreadnoughts **HMS **_**Orion**_ (**Maria Dreyer**), **HMS **_**Monarch**_ (**Henriette Poincaré**), **HMS **_**Conqueror**_ (**Helen Tothill**) and **HMS **_**Thunderer**_ (**Edith Fergusson**) were the subjects of beautiful artwork by the dōjinshi artist **Siirakannu**. Examples of his work can be seen at Pixiv; go to ID #s 1731893, 1742570, 1763615 and 1763617 respectively to see his portrayals of the Orion sisters. Other elements of the Grant Fleet also fell under Siirakannu-sensei's eye; a portrait of **HMS **_**Vanguard**_ (**Jocelyn Dick**) can be seen at ID #46140069 on page 4, while **HMS **_**Erin**_ (**Jasmine Stanley-Ziyaeddin**) can be found at ID #45287159 on page 32. As for the official artwork, **HMS **_**Queen Elizabeth**_ (**Elizabeth Tutor**) takes after her _Azur Lane_ self (as an adult, of course), as do **HMS **_**Renown**_ (**Raven Tennyson-d'Eyncourt**) and her sister **HMS **_**Repulse**_ (**Renée Tennant**). **HMS **_**Royal Oak**_ (**Kimberly Maclachlan**) takes after her _Warship Girls_ self. Indirect templates include the other Queen Elizabeth-class battleships: **HMS **_**Valiant**_ (**Brenda Woollcombe**) takes after Charlene Boleyn's _Warship Girls_ self, **HMS **_**Barham**_ (**Jane Middleton-Barham**) takes after Charlene's _Azur Lane_ self and **HMS **_**Malaya**_ (**Margaret Swettenham**) will take after Elizabeth Tutor's _Warship Girls_ self. Finally, **HMS **_**Tiger**_ (**Brandy Pelly**) will take after the _Victory Belles_ interpretation of Mary Hood.

Note that **HMS **_**Agincourt**_ (**Catharine Plantagenet de Janeiro e 'Osmān**) and **HMS **_**Erin**_ ( **Jasmine Stanley-Ziyaeddin**) have two names listed above. The first is the names they're known as in Britain. The second names are what they would be normally referred to in Turkey.

And with that, now come Germany's **Hochseeflotte** ("High Seas Fleet")...

Kapitän zur See **Irmgard, **_**Fürstin**_** von Martell und Hespengau vom Germanien** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Deutschland**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Deutschland**_ [pennant 20])  
KptzS **Monika, **_**Fürstin**_** von Braunschweig** KMKR (later RMDR, then KMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Hannover**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Hannover**_, then **Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Hannover**_ [pennant 21])  
KptzS **Clara, **_**Fürstin**_** von Greifen** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Pommern**_ [pennant 22])  
KptzS **Antonia, **_**Fürstin**_** von Wettin** KMKR (later RMDR, then KMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Schlesien**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Schlesien**_, then **Kriegsmarineschiff _Schlesien_** [pennant 23])  
KptzS **Sophia, **_**Fürstin**_** von Schaumburg** KMKR (later RMDR, then KMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Schleswig-Holstein**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Schleswig-Holstein**_, then **Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Schleswig-Holstein**_ [pennant 24])  
KptzS **Wilfreda, **_**Fürstin**_** von Nassau-Weilburg** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Nassau**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Nassau**_ [pennant 25])  
KptzS **Agnes, **_**Fürstin**_** von Wied-Izenburg** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Westfalen**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Westfalen**_ [pennant 26])  
KptzS **Cäcilie, "Cassi" **_**Fürstin**_** von Solms-Laubach** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Rheinland**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Rheinland**_ [pennant 27])  
KptzS **Hedwig Radziwiłł, **_**Fürstin**_** von Njaswisch und Olyka** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Posen**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Posen**_ [pennant 28])  
KptzS **Rebekka, **_**Pfalzgräfin**_** von Friesen-Helgoland zu Oldenburg** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Helgoland**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Helgoland**_ [pennant 30])  
KptzS **Genoveva, **_**Fürstin**_** von Cirksena** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Ostfriesland**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Ostfriesland**_ [pennant 31])  
KptzS **Margaret, **_**Landgräfin**_** von Wettin und Meißen** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Thüringen**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Thüringen**_ [pennant 32])  
KptzS **Annaleisa, **_**Fürstin**_** von Oldenburg** KMKR (later RMDR) (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Oldenburg**_, later **Reichsmarineschiff **_**Oldenburg**_ [pennant 33])  
KptzS **Victoria, **_**Fürstin**_** von Preußen** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Kaiser**_ [pennant 36])  
KptzS **Christine, **_**Fürstin**_** von Preußen** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Friedrich der Große**_ [pennant 37])  
KptzS **Luise, **_**Fürstin**_** von Oldenburg zum Schleswig-Holstein** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Kaiserin**_ [pennant 38])  
KptzS **Therese, **_**Fürstin**_** von Wittelsbach** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Prinzregent Luitpold**_ [pennant 39])  
KptzS **Carola, **_**Fürstin**_** von Wettin** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**König Albert**_ [pennant 40])  
KptzS **Charlotte, **_**Fürstin**_** von Württemberg** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**König**_ [pennant 42])  
KptzS **Sophia, **_**Fürstin**_** von Brandenburg** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Großer Kurfürst**_ [pennant 43])  
KptzS **Catharine, **_**Markgräfin**_** von Zähringen** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Markgraf**_ [pennant 44])  
KptzS **Augusta, **_**Fürstin**_** von Preußen **KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Kronprinz Wilhelm**_ [pennant 45])  
KptzS **Anna, **_**Fürstin**_** von Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfield** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Bayern**_ [pennant 49])  
KptzS **Judit, "Judi" **_**Fürstin**_** von Zähringen** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Baden**_ [pennant 50])  
KptzS **Sophie, **_**Freiin**_** von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Von der Tann**_ [pennant 29])  
KptzS **Käthe, **_**Gräfin**_** von Moltke** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Moltke**_ [pennant 34])  
KptzS **Danielle, **_**Freiin**_** von Seydlitz** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Seydlitz**_ [pennant 41])  
KptzS **Sophia, **_**Reichsfreiin**_** von Derfflinger** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Derfflinger**_ [pennant 46])  
KptzS **Anastasia, **_**Freiin**_** von Lützow** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Lützow**_ [pennant 47])  
KptzS **Annamaria, **_**Freiin**_** von Beneckendorff** KMKR (**Seiner Majestät Schiff **_**Hindenburg**_ [pennant 48])

Sadly, there is no official art for Great War German capital ships as none of them survived to serve in World War Two where games like _KanColle_ focus their attention on. However, **SMS **_**Friedrich der Große**_ (**Christine von Preußen**) had very nice fan art done for her by **Bululu**; such can be seen on Pixiv at ID #56549263. Note German capital ships were given pennant numbers in order of their construction in the universe of my stories. Since after the launching of **SMS **_**Nassau**_ (**Freddi von Nassau-Weilburg**) launched the dreadnought race for the German Empire, battlecruisers were ordered between classes of battleships, so the numbers dance from one group to another. Also, ship prefixes were dropped in German use after World War One; the terms **Reichsmarineschiff** ("Navy Ship of the Realm") and **Kriegsmarineschiff** ("War Navy Ship") are my own choices using common historical convention.

Finally...

Capitano di Vascello **Paola de Lerici** RM (**Regia Marina **_**Pola**_ [pennant I67])

Of course, **RM **_**Pola**_ (**Paola de Lerici**) resembles her _KanColle_ interpretation. The Italian pennant superior letter **I** is meant to represent **Incrociatore** ("cruiser"). Pennant lists for the **Regia Marina** ("Royal Navy") are unified between armoured/heavy cruisers and protected/light cruisers.

Translations for the shipgirl lists: **Capitão-de-Mar-e-Guerra** — Captain of Sea and War, the Brazilian Navy rank title for a navy captain; **MB** — Short for **Marinha do Brasil** ("Brazilian Navy"); **Encouraçado** — Battleship (short-formed **EC**), type name and ship prefix for dreadnoughts in the Brazilian Navy; **Kalyon Kaptanı** — Ship-of-the-Line Captain, the Ottoman rank title for a navy captain; **DAO** — Short for **Donanma-yı 'Alīye-i 'Osmānīye** ("Navy of the Ottoman State"); **Yüce Limanın Gemisi** — Warship of the Sublime Porte (short-form **YLG**), ship prefix for Ottoman warships in the universe of my stories; **Kapitán Pérvovo Ránga** — Captain of the First Rank, Soviet/Russian title for a navy captain; **Linéjnyj Korábl'** — Ship-of-the-Line (short-formed **LK**), type name/ship prefix for dreadnoughts in the Soviet and Russian navies; **Seiner Majestät Schiff** — His Majesty's Ship (short-form **SMS**); **KMKR** — Short for **Kaiserliche Marine des Kaiserreiches** ("Imperial Navy of the [German] Imperial Empire"), official name of the Imperial German Navy in the universe of my stories; **RMDR** — Short for **Reichsmarine des Deutschen Reiches** ("Navy of the German Realm"), the official name of the German naval forces from 1919-35 in the universe of my stories; **Capitano di Vascello** — Ship-of-the-Line Captain, the Italian Navy rank title for a navy captain; **RM** — Short for **Regia Marina** ("Royal Navy"), the name of Italy's naval force from 1861-1946, which also is used as the standard ship prefix for vessels of the force.

The **Royal Ulster Rifles** (formed originally as the Royal Irish Rifles) was one of the many rifle regiments that served in the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of two line units from Ireland, renamed in 1921 after the majority of the Emerald Isle became its own state. The Royal Ulsters would be amalgamated with other Irish infantry units in 1968 to form the Royal Irish Rangers, which was in turn amalgamated with another regiment and exists today as the **Royal Irish Regiment**.

The noble ranks used by **Tenhiro Haruka** (**Fauchard**) to address German shipgirls translate as follows:

**Pfalzgraf/Pfalzgräfin** — Literally "count(ess) of the palace"  
**Markgraf/Markgräfin** — Literally "count(ess) of the march"  
**Landgraf/Landgräfin** — Literally "count(ess) of the land"  
**Fürst/Fürstin** — Literally "first" and normally translated "prince(ess)"  
**Reichsgraf/Reichsgräfin** — Literally "count(ess) of the empire"  
**Burggraf/Burggräfin** — Literally "count(ess) of the castle"  
**Altgraf/Altgräfin** — Literally "old count(ess)"  
**Graf/Gräfin** — Literally "count(ess)"  
**Freiherr/Freifrau/Freiin** — Literally "free lord" (men), "free lady" (married women) or "free madame" (unmarried women) respectively, normally translated as "baron(ess)"  
**Ritter/Frau** — Literally "knight" (men) or "lady" (women), this would be the equivalent of getting knighted by a monarch, but not given land

The salutation style **Durchlaucht** applies to all noble ranks from fürst/fürstin above. In Part Eight of the main story, Haruka made the mistake of addressing Amélie von Zeppelin as "Eure Durchlaucht" when the namesake of the builder of the first rigid airship was spiritually only a reichsgräfin in noble rank. The salutation style **Erlaucht** would apply to those ONLY of the rank of reichsgraf/reichsgräfin. Those of ranks below reichsgraf/reichsgräfin and above freiherr/freifrau/freiin have the salutation style **Hochgeboren** (literally "high-born"); the rough English equivalent would be "Your Grace". Those with the rank of freiherr/freifrau/freiin and ritter/frau earn the salutation style **Hochwohlgeboren** (literally "high well-born"); the rough English equivalent would be "Your Lord(Lady)ship".


	3. The Justice of Gashleycrumb

**DISCLAIMER: Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the **_**Copyright Act **_**(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration.**

* * *

_**London, the Ministry of Magic, two hours after supper...**_

"Here's the initial report, Director."

Hearing that tired statement from the sergeant in charge of investigating the Gashleycrumb issue on the magical side of things, Amelia Bones took a deep breath before she picked up the roll of parchment Kingsley Shacklebolt just placed on her desk. Unrolling it, the regent lady for the Noble House of Bute in the Clyde estuary of Scotland did a quick scan of the synopsis before she shook her head, then she handed the parchment to the chief of the Obliviators, Arnold Peasegood. As he took a moment to absorb what had been written, the woman now seen as a good candidate for Minister with Cornelius Fudge having been deposed the previous morning shook her head. "Dear Merlin! It's a miracle that Miss Saint Clair and her friends held back so much if that's the total count of dead and missing...!"

"It's not a complete count, Director," the Grenadian-descent native of Sevenoaks in County Kent to the southeast of London warned as he sat. "As you'll know, Sherlock was invited by his brother to look in on this situation." As the other people in Bones' office nodded in approval of the involvement of the famous consulting detective, Shacklebolt smirked. "Yotsuba is here for the time being helping out, as are one of Miss Saint Clair's friends who was a detective in her first life, Miss Schubert. They won't declare a final count until all the computer data can be dredged up by Mister Wolf and Mister Eliot; fortunately, Yotsuba's sisters Rinrin, Shirayuki and Hinako came over to help out."

"Any idea when this will be finally done, Shack?" Bones asked.

Shacklebolt shook his head. "You know Sherlock, Boss."

"Thank Merlin that Mycroft got him involved in this mess," Peasegood noted before sipping his cup of tea. "Anything for my people to worry about, Shack? I know Greg's a good man when it comes to dealing with secrecy issues, but with so many of these ship spirits there now...!"

With that, he nodded towards the magically-powered television mounted on the wall of Bones' private office; such was a present from Hatoyama Rinrin through Yotsuba Dunn after the girls learned about their shared father Moroboshi Muchi. On the screen, the BBC News Channel was on, it displaying an update concerning the "Gashleycrumb Affair", which was now being merged into the news involving the return of FORTY-SEVEN British shipgirls (including ALL the capital ships of the Grand Fleet as it had existed during the Great War), THIRTY German shipgirl veterans of the High Seas Fleet from that same time period and SEVENTEEN additional Japanese shipgirls from the period of the Second World War.

Shacklebolt gazed at the "talking heads" on the screen for a moment, then he smirked. "Nothing to worry about at all, Arnold," he assured the older hit wizard, crossing his arms. "Everyone knows Yotsuba's brother is in country now meeting with Miss Saint Clair and her friends, so it'll be expected that Japanese shipgirls would be here as his escort party. Since Captain Slaed put up that notice me-not charm around the property when she went to meet with the orphans earlier today, there's been no real inquiry by the general public concerning the exact details of what's been going on."

"Even the dementors?" Bones wondered, her jaw dropping.

"Even that," he answered. "Given how much the Schwarze Mädchen were said to have cross-trained..."

Chuckles echoed from the others in the room. While the majority of the British wizarding public were only NOW starting to wake up to the fact that the infamous light brigade of muggleborn shock troopers that once fought for Gellert Grindelwald were alive and well thanks to the mercy of the Undying Lord, the fact that people like Andrea Slaed had elected to NOT make waves in government and elsewhere was a point to their favour. Thinking of that, Bones grimaced as she wondered what might have happened if idiots like Cornelius Fudge or selfish monsters like the late Dolores Umbridge lashed out against the Schwarze Mädchen. Would it have made Thérèse Peverell force her Gifting as the Major Domo of the Cosmic Mage Guild, _**Nalokror'be**_ (the "_**Thaumaturge**_") — and thus, by extension, use the Praeda Bellica benediction to seize control of the Very Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin, thus claiming one of the Empty Seats in the Wizengamot chambers — before she was truly ready to face her other-self? What would have happened if open battle occurred between the battle-hardened, pureblood-hating veterans of the Wars of Liberation and the muggleborn-hating Death Eaters?

Shaking her head, Bones took back the parchment from Peasegood, then scanned through it once more before she hummed. "Did anyone from the Department of Mysteries get a look at that dungeon that was under the swimming pool?" she then asked the auror sergeant before her.

"They're scanning it now, Boss," Shacklebolt answered. "Save for the dementors that were killed when Commander Yuhara Seiko went at them with her soulsword and Professor Dumbledore's help, there was nothing else there that might interest us. Fortunately, there were no corpses of children found there. Both Professor Croaker and Mister Eliot believe that Mister Lestrange had no idea it was there even if the property had been in his hands since it was bought for him by his late father in 1954."

"How bad have the complaints been?" Peasegood asked their host.

Bones groaned. Coinciding with what was happening at Gashleycrumb, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had conducted raids on magical homes across the United Kingdom to trace down any missing children from the orphanage; Mycroft Holmes promised her that such would be credited to MI5 once news of their recovery got out. Much to her relief, a dozen such children had been recovered; they were now at Saint Mungo's Hospital over two kilometres west of southwest from Gashleycrumb as they were treated for their injuries before they would be returned to Andrea Slaed's custody. While such had been downplayed on the Wizarding Wireless Network's afternoon and evening news as well as the evening edition of _The Daily Prophet_, complaints from the owners of said houses — those who weren't arrested and facing charges, of course — concerning the "gross intrusion of privacy" the aurors inflicted on them was causing the still-surviving conservative elements of the Wizengamot to grumble.

But with SEVENTY-FIVE warship spirits from the age of the Great War now taking interest...!

* * *

_**Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries (near Hammersmith Broadway in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham), that moment...**_

"And there we go..."

Watching his new apprentice make use of her own powers, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Denham nodded in appreciation as the face of the young girl who had been retrieved from the Burke family mansion near Bury Saint Edmonds brightened after all the badly-aching bones in her body were mended whole by Charlene Smith-Bartlett's healing touch. As the attending healers and mediwizards/mediwitches gaped at the sheer power of the reborn hospital ship, the touch empath from Regina who had gone through Canada's private school for metahumans four decades ago nodded as he patted his student's shoulder. "Well done, Commander," he said. "That was the EASY part as I'm sure our hosts will gladly agree with." He gave the chief healer in charge of the Gashleycrumb case a knowing look.

"Indeed you're right, Healer Denham," Professor Helbert Spleen affirmed with a light smile before he gazed down at his current patient. "Now, Miss Mason, we're going to let you sleep for a while. We're giving you a drink that will ensure you don't have nightmares, alright?"

"Yes, Doctor," Carrie Mason whispered as a mediwitch came up, a vial in hand.

With that, the group of healers and their assistants walked out of the room. As one of the mediwizards secured the door, Spleen took a deep breath. "Damn! I'm getting too damned OLD for garbage like this!" the half-blood native of Bristol muttered before he gazed on the Canadian medical/naturopathic doctor/part-time ninjutsu-ka who had taken the reborn HMHS _Britannic_ as his new student. "How about you, Scott? You ever run into cases like this back home in the Dominion?"

"Personally, no, Herbert...but I have met veteran healers who came up through the Foresters and the Naval Magical Service who had to deal with residential school children that were rescued by magical relatives over the years until the last of those places were shut down." Here, the grey-haired doctor shook his head as he gazed on the closed door to the room now holding a sleeping child. "Just as bad in places. While children are quite resilient, what those staleblood monsters did to them..."

The others grimly nodded. Much to the frustration of conservative purebloods over the generations, Saint Mungo's had been a place where blood politics never held any sort of sway. If there was ANYONE native to the United Kingdom or visiting it who got hurt by magical means, they had the RIGHT to seek treatment at the place set up by Healer Professor Mungo Bonham in the Elizabethan Era; such was guaranteed by Royal Charter backed by a Magical Royal Proclamation that outdated even the Separation Act of 1692. Of course, thanks to the piss-poor teaching of history at Hogwarts since before the Wars of Liberation and the death of Cuthbert Binns, very few who didn't deal with Saint Mungo's on a regular basis had any idea there was NO power the Ministry of Magic possessed that could restrict care to any native of the British Isles regardless if they were magical or normal. Thanks to the fact that the latest dark lord to have haunted the lives of British magicals having been publicly EXECUTED over thirty-six hours before in the Ministry's atrium, with all his marked followers also being taken down...!

"Professor! Professor!"

Heads turned as a mediwizard came towards them. "What is it?" Spleen asked.

"Sorry to bother you, sir, but the whole of the BATTLECRUISER FORCE and the German FIRST SCOUTING GROUP are in the lobby right now!" the wide-eyed younger man declared as he indicated the nearby stairwell. "Lady Lion and Lady Lützow are demanding to speak to the healers in charge of the Gashleycrumb cases; they were sent here at the order of Lady Dreadnought and Lady Nassau to secure the whole hospital from potential attack by the children's torturers."

That made everyone's eyes widen...

* * *

_**On the lawn of the Gashleycrumb House, that moment...**_

"Do you sense it, Mutsuko?"

"Hai, Onē-sama, I do. Battle is coming." Here, the ash-haired adopted native of Fuchū and Nagasaki grinned in anticipation. "The fool stalebloods who lost their lying 'leader' yesterday morning before we finally joined up with you now fume at the lack of 'respect'..." — the grounds seemed to be coated ankle-deep by the scorn in Itō Mutsuko's voice — "...from their 'inferiors'. This Musashi will more than welcome them if they come here to hurt the little ones even more." She cracked her knuckles in anticipation. "It'll be just as good as if we could meet again with the accursed Qar'to that Tirpitz-dono, Scharnhorst-dono, Gneisenau-dono and Roma-dono dealt with in Norway before they joined us."

"Hai," Itō Yoiko coldly declared with a smile that had no mirth in it. As she visually scanned the night sky over this part of London, the seventh carrier of Operation Z also reached out with her nearly-cosmic senses to scour the whole of the United Kingdom and even Ireland to see if there were any attempts at either portkeying or apparating onto the grounds of the old manor. "At least our friends from the local ministry here identified the family that once owned this house. What a pity a brave and noble warrior like Wenlock-sensei would have his whole family's living legacy stained so hideously."

"Hai..."

That little factoid had been recently revealed by the group of Unspeakables who came to examine the dungeon where the old swimming pool had been. Now that the troupe of dementors who resided there had been destroyed too easily earlier by Yuhara Seiko, people under Professor Saul Croaker eventually stumbled onto a massive trove of priceless books and other artifacts once owned by the long-lost Most Noble House of Wenlock, ennobled as the Viscounts of Tinworth near the end of the War of the Roses by King Richard III. While there was a potential claimant to that particular seat in the House of Lords Wizengamot thanks to a blood connection to Andrea Slaed's sister Schwarze Mädchen Major Elisabet "Bette" Maris of Königsberg in old East Prussia, the research wing of the Ministry of Magic wanted to go over what had been found today in that dungeon with a fine-tooth comb before turning any of it over to the tomboyish brunette who currently lived in the magical quarter of Cardiff.

"Yoiko-san. Mutsuko-san."

Both turned as the rose-haired destroyer who had become briefly the master of the infamous Deathstick came over to join them. Her white-trimmed black uniform now had her hull number **207** in the pure-white Japanese style on her outer thighs, as Yoiko sported **11** in white on her green hakama trousers and Mutsuko had **36** in white on her black form-fitting pants. "The warders have arrived from Gringotts and are now placing the main ward stone in the sub-basement levels," the adopted native of Yokosuka reported as she gazed to the west. "Lilian-sempai's and Anastasia-sempai's forces are at Saint Mungo's now to secure the children who were found by the local constabulary. As you suggested to Emma-sama and Wilfreda-sama, there are two divisions of destroyers forming picket lines covering northern and southern London at one kilometre's altitude. Charlene-sempai and her sisters have formed a fast reaction force. Jean-san and Luisa-san are transmitting recall messages on Royal Navy and Germany Navy frequencies to see if other kanmusu are close by and can come assist; Luisa-san is now at HMS _President_ close to Tower Bridge and Jean-san is at HMS _King Alfred_ in Portsmouth."

"Don't you think you're overreacting, Captain Itō?"

That was Greg Lestrade, who had walked over to join them after briefing the two local policemen standing guard by the front gates. "There is reason for Emma-sama's and Wilfreda-sama's current madness, Inspector," Yoiko dryly declared as she scanned to the southeast just in case that bōsōzoku that had the AUDACITY to HIT the likes of the reborn **HMS **_**Dreadnought**_ even by accident was close by, ready to press another attack on "freaks". "First, it shows that the noble guardians of old Albion and their honourable opponents from old Germania are prepared to do ANYTHING to protect Andrea-san's new charges after all they've been through. While I'm not aware of how blind the current generation of 'purebloods' are in this land when it comes to 'muggles'..." — here, the adopted native of Maizuru made finger-quotes when she said that — "...it is better to be safe than sorry. Are they now so angry at the death of that yōma Voldemort that they'll lash out in some 'banzai charge' here? Doing it in such a way that would have Peasegood-sensei's people working themselves to DEATH to protect those who wouldn't deserve the pain the SHATTERING of the Statute of Secrecy could unleash on both sides?!"

The native of Weston-super-Mare blinked before he nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Can't like it, though."

"Your co-workers will be alright, Lestrade-keibu," Yuhara Seiko assured. "Two of my sisters have orders to protect them in case any fool wants to launch a frontal attack on the grounds."

That made him blink before he looked towards the main gate. The constables standing on both sides of the portal now had teenage girls at their sides, both of whom Lestrade remembered from earlier when almost all the Yuhara sisters came to Gashleycrumb. One was a track runner-type with long silver hair partially done in twintails, amber-shaded eyes peeking out of a severe face; she was in a uniform similar to her sister's (without the white gloves) and had pennant **214** on her thighs. Her immediate sister across the way was a playful girl with her silver-fringed black hair done in shaggy twintails almost like dog ears; her uniform was white with black trim, pennant **215** on her thighs in black. "Amako and Tokiko," he mused; he was good with names, which was needed in his line of work.

Gazing at where the reborn THG _Amatsukaze_ and THG _Tokitsukaze_ were, both relaxed but also alert and ready for action, Yoiko nodded in approval. "They have proper courses of withdrawal plotted in case there is such a frontal attack upon our allies, Shiranui-dono?" she wondered.

"Hai!" Seiko coldly responded.

"Good," the seventh carrier of Operation Z sighed as she gazed towards the north. "Minna-san..." she then quietly declared. "You have the invitation to come entertain us...if you're _**brave**_ enough."

Mutsuko cackled in anticipation as Lestrade blinked...

* * *

_**On the north shore of the Thames overlooking the Pool of London downriver from Tower Bridge, that moment...**_

"Meine Schwester...?"

"Ja?"

"Um..."

Luisa von Bismarck blinked before she gazed in amusement at her younger sister, who was now looking upon the slowly flowing waters of Britain's mother river passing by the quay in front of the stone building housing HMS _President_, one of the Royal Navy's reserve "stone frigates". Also with her and Maria von Tirpitz were the destroyer shipgirls who came with them from Japan, Lieselotte Maaß and Melanie Schultz. "Do you think they'll come back to help us?" Maria then asked.

A sigh escaped the adopted native of Schönhausen. "Hard to say. I was more than glad that Gisela came back, as did the others who were at Narvik when Charlene visited. Frau Professor Langley spoke well of their actions at Namp'o," Luisa noted, earning her a nod from the silver-haired battleship. As they spoke, the reborn second of the Type 1934 destroyers, Gisela Thiele, was leading her team of seven — composed of those who had been sunk at the second Battle of Narvik in mid-April of 1940 — on an in-depth reconnaissance of the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea to find their sisters and other German warships who had sunk in the region and compel their spirits to be Gifted. The more hands on deck when it came to the Goa'uld whom they would be facing in roughly fourteen hours' time...!

"Hello, Bismarck! Looking a lot more chipper than you did back in '41, I'd say!"

Luisa gasped before she spun around...

...then she gaped as a slightly shorter woman descended from the sky to land about a metre away. As both Lieselotte and Melanie tensed, ready to dodge in front of their flagship in case the newcomer attacked, the attractive chestnut-eyed woman with the well-styled hip-length blonde hair relaxed herself as her gold boots gently rested on the quay, her dark blue uniform nearly melting into the growing evening even if the gold belt around her waist and the gold ring topped with ship's rope and crowned with a naval coronet with the standard gold-trimmed black name placard with gold letters were quite visible. The name there made Luisa tensed. "King George...?!"

"Oh, tosh-tosh, old girl! War's been long over and I was sent to the breakers in '57," the newly-arrived lead of the second King George V-class of battleships said with a waved of a white-gloved hand before she looked at Luisa's sister; given her origins and namesake, the adopted native of Newcastle upon Tyne (where the second HMS _King George V_ had been built) and London (given her namesake king had been born in Marlborough House in the Saint James's part of the City of Westminster) spoke with a clipped BBC accent possessing a strong hint of Northumbrian which made her sound almost as Scottish as Louise Teck. "Tirpitz, too?! Ruddy good! You have to tell me about these alien cannibal monsters that were about to kill off all those poor children near where the chaps from 9 and 617 Squadrons finally caught you in '44. You know the ones, don't you? The bastards you, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Roma dealt with yesterday? If they're anything like the bloody lar'beke that the lady who created these new hulls for us all those years ago to drive off Yiziba, the faster they're shown the black flag, the better!"

Hearing that, the schiffsmädchen blinked before they relaxed. Rushes of air then made them look up as two more women of the same general body-build as the lead of her class came to land on either side of her. The newcomers shared their elder sister's blonde hair, though their eyes were blue. One was a tomboy while the other wore her hair very long in a high ponytail. The tomboy had a dark blue top and black pants with white belt and boots; her more fashionable sister had a white top, blue pants and gold belt and boots. "Two standing destroyer division patrols north and south of the Thames, George," the tomboy announced, her Glaswegian mixed with London. "Wales and York are on their way here now. We've got new pennant assignments and we'll be part of the Royal Specialized Warfare Fencibles once we take the loyalty oath and are confirmed as full captains in the Naval Reserve."

"Much better than wasting away in reserve all the time," the other woman mused with a voice that was a very ear-pleasing blend of Northumbrian and West Midlands. "Of course, getting used to being human WOMEN with the same powers as mystery men is going to be a bit of a chore in the long term, I believe!" She gazed curiously at the German shipgirls. "How's it been for you people?"

Luisa chuckled. "Fortunately, we have a wonderful close family of Admirale who have opened their doors to all of us, Anson," she explained as she offered her hand. As the British battleship warmly shook that, the most famous of her type worldwide asked, "By the way, did you hear the human name the spirit of the Forge — the 'Conservator' as modern Yizibajohei call it — gave you on your Gifting?"

The last of her class hummed. "'Isabella Elizabeth Anson'," she stated.

"It'll have to be Isabella or Belle then," Maria helpfully offered. "Old Queen Elizabeth got 'Anne Elizabeth Tudor' when she was Gifted, so she took her middle name. What about you two?"

"'Gwendolyn Katharine Patterson' for myself," the reborn first of her class announced. "Howe?"

"'Sophia Charlotte Howe'," the fourth of her class answered. "I'd like to know who made that name. It's nice and it reflected well on the memory of my namesake. What about you four?" she asked.

The schiffsmädchen immediately introduced themselves, snapping to attention in proper salute to their former foes. After handshakes were exchanged, Luisa added, "Once you report to Großmutter Dreadnought near Hyde Park — that's where both the Große Flotte and the Hochseeflotte have gathered now that they've been made human — you'll meet several of the current generation of Admirale who've effectively taken charge of us. They're from Japan, but since you survived the war..."

That made Katharine — as she now elected to refer to herself as — nod. "I'd like to meet these ones..."

"_**MEINE FREIINEN! LOOK OUT BEHIND...!**_"

A guttural roar made all the shipgirls spin around...

_**KK-KRUNCH!**_

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

The lead of her class looked left as the groaning, humanoid thing that just tried to bite her head off rolled over her shoulder to drop like a stone to the wooden deck. As the eyes of beings who had seen MUCH worse over two lifetimes gazed at the creature, a pained howl escaped its mouth as the surface layers of mesonium in Katharine's skin touched by its teeth began to burn through the hideous dark magic that had been injected into the poor soul before...then it crumbled into dust.

"_**Vampir**_...?!" Melanie hissed.

"No, Melanie," the flagship of the Home Fleet during the early years of the Second World War affirmed, her eyes smoking in outrage. "A ghoul. A poor sod turned into an undead slave by a vampire...!"

"_**How DARE you...?!**_"

The shipgirls squawked before the equivalent of onboard radar within their souls screamed the alarm just as a midnight-black torrent of howling, glowing-eyed creatures lunged out of the night sky from the direction of HMS _President_'s headquarters complex to dog pile them...!

* * *

_**An industrial district in Stratford within the borough of Newham (ten kilometres east-northeast of Gashleycrumb), that moment...**_

"_**...DARE you interrupt us...?!**_"

The snarling vampire suddenly found his mouth impaled by the deadly energy shank being projected from the fingers of the Swamp Ratel of the West. "Shut up!" Prudence O'Hara snarled as the mesonium in her finger-claws sent terminal waves of cleansing energy into the death cheater's body. "Death cheaters, stalebloods, crunchy norms and sames alike; you're all just TARGETS to me!" the dark-skinned Oxfordshire native with the bushy black hair hissed as she withdrew her claws, allowing the mortally wounded vampire to collapse onto the floor of the warehouse where she caught had him, two friends and a battalion's worth of ghouls. She was quick to recognize a couple as older children from Gashleycrumb who disappeared some years back. As the creature disintegrated while ichor stained the floor, the third form ki mistress then glared at the other two vampires inside the building, both of whom had balked on seeing what those deadly blades now projecting from her fingertips did to their leader. They shivered on noting that Prue didn't seem the least bit bothered by the sheer number of animated corpses standing between her and them. "_**How many...?!**_" she snarled, her eyes glowing.

"_**BITCH...!**_" one vampire roared...

...before a long silver-and-mesonium bayonet ripped into the side of his head!

Prue gaped as the creature collapsed, making the ghouls howl in outrage as they sensed yet another being infused with the Atom of True Life within his body. The last vampire reared back as his glowing eyes went wide with true terror. "_**Iscariot...?!**_" he croaked out.

The Oxfordshire native looked over...

...then she gaped on seeing the tall, lanky yet muscular middle-aged man walk into the light, revealing a uniform that resembled a curious mixture of a traditional Yizibajohei battlesuit draped in a beautiful black Catholic cassock; underneath the purple jumpsuit was a black button shirt topped with the proper white collar tab displayed under his chin. He was quite handsome in a rugged way, possessing spiky silver-shot blond hair, blue eyes burning with the power of the Great Crystal behind protective goggles, a proud battle scar bisecting his left cheek. White gauntlets with red crucifix insignia on the back of the palms now covered his hands. Prue's enhanced eyesight picked out the words on the banners wrapped around the crosses: On the right, **IESUS CHRISTUS IN CAELO**; on the left, **CUM MORTUIS LOQUENTUR**. While he moved with the understandable discipline one would expect of a Gifted metahuman from Yiziba, there was also the hint of a fanatic smile twitching his lips.

"_**Hold your TONGUE!**_"

The vampire's eyes flashed, making the ghouls spin away from Prue to face their new attacker...

"_**The dead do NOT speak!**_"

"_**KILL HIM!**_" the vampire screamed.

The ghouls roared as they charged just as a whole forest of blades emerged from the voluminous sleeves of the newcomer's cassock to form two deadly "flowers" of supernatural DEATH...

"_**The dead DARE walk the earth before my eyes?!**_"

As the Swamp Ratel gaped in disbelief, the newcomer charged with near-superhuman speed, his blades whirling like propellers before he began ripping through the animated corpses like a madly-spinning panjandrum from the Second World War, complete with cutting blades. Body parts were severed at nightmarish speeds even as the priest — whom Prue now recognized as the current incarnation of the Holy Warrior of the West, _**Rieter'be**_ ("_**Paladin**_") — calmly continued his ki enhanced speech: "_**The undead DARE abandon God's desires, raise an army to strike down His Children?! They DARE presume to stand against all that is good?! No! God will now allow it! I will not allow it!**_"

"_**DIE...!**_" the last vampire shrieked...

...before he gargled in shock as the newcomer suddenly appeared right before him, a smile that had no mirth in it whatsoever now on his face. "_**Those who DARE cheat death will be cut down like straws**_," the metahuman priest snarled as he raised his now quite-blood and ichor soaked weapons.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!**_"

A howling scream escaped the creature as he was shredded, that echoing throughout east London...

* * *

_**Buckingham Palace (1400 metres southeast of Gashleycrumb), that moment...**_

"Your tea, Your Majesty."

Smiling as the beautiful cup of Darjeeling tea was placed into her hands, the Queen of the United Kingdom nodded her thanks before she gazed on her volunteer server. "A proper White Star service, Commander Smith?" she then teasingly asked the elder of the Olympic-class liners.

Sarah Smith blushed before she straightened herself. "But of course, ma'am! Mister Ismay, for all his many faults, would curse me to the lowest pits of Dante's Inferno if I didn't perform to standards!"

Laughter filled the Green Drawing Room as the adopted native of Belfast and Alnwick bowed. Now gathered there were the Prime Minister and members of Cabinet along with Mycroft Holmes (with Anthea McAllister) as well as leaders of the Hellsing Organization, who had been tasked for well over a century to deal with supernatural threats that couldn't be handled by the Ministry of Magic. Who were quite noticeable with their _**absence**_ tonight, much to no one's surprise; still, given what happened under Northumberland Avenue near Whitehall early the previous morning, it was more than excusable for Amelia Bones to miss out on this meeting. Chuckling, the Queen sipped her tea. "Tell me, Helena, is young Mister Schrödinger within the country at this time?" she then asked the smiling blonde teenager seated to her side, her very complex PAA in her lap as she typed on a holographic keyboard.

Helena Wall looked over, caramel brown eyes sparkling. Still possessing the pale skin she had possessed since the time of the first Queen Elizabeth when she was turned BEFORE her first blood by a vampire thanks to being a virgin, the silver-haired bibliophile from Southwark near the site of the Globe Theatre encountered the Living Spirit of Innocence in the first days of the latter's post-Gifting "world tour" the previous summer. Saddened that Helena had been denied the right to experience what normal girls do, Saeru Hinako took the vampire directly to the Doll House and saw her get a synthezoid body to ensure no objections from one Margo Black. Almost right there, the Londoner was Gifted as the Mistress of Craftmaking, _**Toluo**_ ("_**Ceàrd**_"). Returning to Earth, the now-teenage Helena offered her services as the Queen's special aide de camp when it came to all specialized warfare matters.

"Yes, ma'am, Herr Schrödinger is in country as we speak," the bibliophile-turned-technokinetic polymath reported. "He was just now in Tower Heights close to the headquarters of HMS _President_. He warned Fürstin von Bismarck about a pending attack of ghouls upon her, her sister Freiin von Tirpitz and their escorts." She gazed directly at the window on the holographic screen before her. "I'm pleased to report that Baronetesses Patterson, Howe and Anson are with them at this time."

"Howe and Anson..." one of the Round Table Council who helped Mycroft and Integra Hellsing coordinate between the Specialized Warfare Fencibles and the Hellsing Organization when it came to issues involving those of the former group being drawn into the latter's operations hummed. "Your Majesty's Ships _Howe_ and _Anson_ of the second King George V-class, ma'am," he concluded, gazing on the Queen. "I would assume, Your Ladyship, that Baronetess Patterson is _King George V_ herself."

"Yes, Admiral, you're correct," the woman who had been knighted as the Viscountess of Southwark by the current monarch shortly after her Gifting — which gave her a seat in BOTH the normal House of Lords AND the House of Lords Wizengamot, much to the consternation of conservative pureblood magicals in the land who supported all efforts to keep magicals separated from "muggles" — affirmed. "Also, Dame Integra, I need to advise you that Father Anderson is in country."

That made the leader of Hellsing tense even if she felt a flash of anger at the fact that the vampire-turned-metahuman insisted on calling her that in lieu of her preferred "Sir Integra". "Where exactly?"

"Currently in Newham, moving to destroy a regiment's worth of ghouls alongside Miss O'Hara."

Hearing that, the blonde and tanned descendant to the man who, during the latter part of the Victorian Era, subdued the infamous "no-life king" who had once ruled Wallachia when he had been a mortal man named Vlad III Țepeș blinked before she breathed out. Noting that, the Queen gazed intently at her. "Is there an issue, Integra?" the older woman asked as she sipped her tea.

"Yes, ma'am. Alucard has been sent to Cheddar in Somerset — about nine kilometres from Wells — concerning a vampire sighting." Integra shook her head. "It's the usual sort of thing, Your Majesty..."

"Can we send one of our shipgirls to monitor things, Mycroft?"

Mycroft nodded. "I have just the person, ma'am."

"Please do so."

With that, the Master of the Fencibles pulled up a modified cell phone...

* * *

_**Cheddar in Somerset, thirty minutes later...**_

Desmond Ciardi wondered what the hell he had done in a past life to be stuck with THIS stupid task!

The raven-haired fourth form native of Boston in Lincolnshire was using his repulsion powers as the Attack Spoiler, _**Roeum**_ ("_**Propel**_"), to keep up with the three reborn battlecruisers making their way to the village on the southern border of the "area of outstanding beauty" reserve encompassing the Mendip Hills. While Mycroft Holmes only asked for one particular shipgirl to head off to help out none other than fucking _**Dracula**_ himself — though he went by the reverse spelling of his name, "Alucard" — the eldest of British battlecruisers added to that by dispatching Raven Tennyson-d'Eyncourt and Renée Tennant to accompany Mary Hood to the scene of the latest issue to win Hellsing's attention. While he thought all three shipgirls were plain smoking hot to look at, he also knew of Mary's problems with flashback scenes — what normal folk called "post-traumatic stress disorder" — concerning the incident at Mers-el-Kébir in 1940 where her guns helped destroy a former ally, damaged others and caused over a thousand deaths. Fortunately for the adopted native of Butleigh and Clydebank, the Attack Spoiler was the best sort in case the girl once more got it into her head to try to kill herself.

Knowing that Moroboshi Ataru had elected to take Mary under his personal wing was a sign of hope...

...even if the Healer of Women's Hearts felt he had to go all the way to the point of threatening to unleash his most dire punishment on the reborn "pride of the Royal Navy" so she could be snapped back into line and get her ready for fighting the Goa'uld within the next twelve hours or so.

Shuddering as part of his mind kept him at even altitude, he tried not to look ill on recalling a time a past-self of his actually witnessed the dreaded _**Torture of a Thousand Kisses**_!

"Got something!"

That was Renée. "What?!" Mary demanded as she looked over.

The brunette, blue-eyed adopted native of Deptford within the London borough of Lewisham south of the Thames (where the first of ten previous ships named _Repulse_ had been built at the Deptford Dockyards in the latter years of the Elizabethan Era) and Clydebank (where she had been built) scanned down to the area north of the rather quiet and dark village. "Gunshots!" she said, pointing to a place where there was a brief flash of light, followed immediately by the faint echo of pistol fire.

All three shipgirls then perked on hearing a man scream out. "_**GO!**_" Raven — who had been made the tactical flagship of their ad-hoc squadron at Lauren Cay's direct order concerning Mary's current issues — snapped as she pointed right where the sounds were originating.

Mary, Renée and Raven flipped to their sides like banking fighter aircraft before diving towards what got their attention, followed by their handler from Gashleycrumb using his own powers to drop altitude...

* * *

_**In the forest...**_

Screaming like the hounds of Hell themselves were after her, the young constable of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary could only grit her teeth as she ran down a well-worn trail towards where she had parked her cruiser on responding to this all-call concerning a sudden up-sweep of disappearances in and around Cheddar village in the last week. Shaking her head as the unreality of the situation — her partner just had his HEAD bitten off by some freakish _**vampire**_ of all things, one dressed as a PRIEST for the love of God! — Seras Victoria grunted as a clearing appeared ahead of her, her faithful car...

The whole ground violently shook, causing the blonde native of Taunton to trip up and fall flat on her face, her gloved hand jerking enough to make her drop the Glock 19 she had been issued for this occasion, the matte black automatic pistol spiralling away out of her reach. Before she could get back up and retrieve her weapon before running on, a growing voice with the echo of something inhuman called out from somewhere behind her, "_**There's no use running, little lady.**_"

Seras gasped before she spun around...

...then her jaw dropped in disbelief on seeing the "priest" in question — his fanged teeth shining in the evening light — standing about five metres away from her, he surrounded and backed by a virtual SEA of ghoulish beings, many of whom were in A&SC field uniforms! Spotting her pistol thanks to the sudden shift of wind moving the shadows about, Seras rolled left, recovering her sidearm with great speed, then she locked on target, a fusillade of 9 millimetre shells racing downrange.

The vampire in lead of a double company's worth of ghouls snarled...

...before he blurred right into her face!

"_**There's no use firing your gun either!**_" he snarled

He snared her arms, jerking to make her let go of her weapon, then he yanked to both sides, which exposing her chest to the moonlight, that action ripping open her shirt to reveal her sports bra.

Unnoticed by the priest, his magically-sharpened claws had dug into her skin enough to draw blood.

Such instantly burning his hands and making him let go as her blue eyes began to ominously glitter...

_**Tene lomher'buo, Seras Katherine Victoria...!**_

A gargle of shock escaped her as her body began to glow brightly, making many ghouls yelp as they sensed something _**dangerous**_ now blooming from the very heart and soul of their would-be victim...

* * *

_**Nearby...**_

_**Tene lomher'buo, Seras Katherine Victoria...!**_

The tall, lanky man in the mixture of Victorian and modern dress with the wide-brimmed fedora hat covering his long wavy raven hair perked on hearing that thunderous voice, then he chuckled as he gazed towards the evening sky. "Ah...a lovely evening to hunt..." the No-Life King mused as his burning crimson eyes peeked out of the protective goggles he normally wore when in the field. "And a Gift from Yiziba for some fortunate lucky lady Tariko or a friend of hers might have encountered."

Chuckling, Alucard looked around, then his nose flared. "Ah...!"

With that, Hellsing's top hunter picked up his pace.

"Wonder if she's a virgin..."

* * *

_**Also nearby...**_

_**Tene lomher'buo, Seras Katherine Victoria...!**_

"Damn! Someone's being Gifted!"

"Do you know who that is, Mister Ciardi?!"

"Dunno!"

"That way!"

With that, three reborn battlecruisers and their pure-born human companion raced into the forest...

* * *

_**Finally...**_

_**Nesu...TOLUO!**_

The forest around Seras Victoria came alive as her clothes were burned away, revealing the perfect body in the eyes of the vampire priest before it was draped in a funeral-black uniform that resembled the standard gi pattern worn by students of the Oriental fighting arts, complete with a gunmetal grey pair of boots covering her feet and a matching leather belt lined with pouches around her waist over well-flared hips. Before the stunned priest could demand what was going on — much less order his ghouls to attack the being that he thought was an ORDINARY woman; no ordinary person had blood that BURNED his skin on contact — a whistle echoed from the sky, making him look up to see a tall and ornate staff twirl down like a runaway panjandrum on the beach during testing in World War Two. With a dramatic sweep of her hand, the now-Gifted woman snared her staff, twirling it several times before planting its narrower end into the ground, her free hand reaching out. The priest then gargled in disbelief as Seras' Glock flew into her hand just as runes appeared on that appendage, pouring energy into the well-moulded automatic pistol, making the same type of markings appear on its slide.

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"_**Wha-...Wha-...What are you?!**_" the priest sputtered out.

Those lovely blue eyes then locked directly on him.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Seras teased as her eyes glowed. "_**SIC 'EM, BOYS!**_"

The whole ground around her suddenly glowed star-bright...

...then with a chorus of howls, a whole pack of glowing silvery wolf-like beings leapt OUT OF THE GROUND to charge directly at the priest and his ghoul slaves, teeth gnashing in anticipation...

* * *

_**Nearby...**_

"Oh-ho! Yizibajohei spirit hounds! This Seras has good taste in pets, it seems!"

Alucard nodded in approval as he continued his approach...

* * *

_**Back on the scene...**_

The priest gaped in dumbfounded horror as those ghostly creatures — which reminded him of very ANGRY transformed werewolves who were instinctively moving to spread their disease on the unsuspecting mortal trash they normally hunted — physically ripped apart the small army of ghouls he had assembled over the last couple of days, a growing mist blanketing the ground around them like a shroud. A quick glance towards Seras made him shudder as that glowing-eyed stare seemed to bore right into what remained of his own soul, finding what was there QUITE wanting. After a minute as the yuoti-suo did their gristly work, the reborn Purger of Souls, _**Toluo**_ ("_**Hisädiaban**_"), quietly whistled, causing the deadly spiritual hunters to stop and look her way before they moved to gather around her.

"I have some questions for you," the Gifted police constable then coolly said.

That made the vampire yelp before he gnashed his teeth. "_**You DARE, girl...?!**_"

A roar from Seras' pack of spirit wolves caused the priest to scream — even if it had NOT hurt him, he FELT those beasts rip apart his ghouls with sheer unrelenting power — which earned him a mirthless smile from the reborn western equatorial arch-mage who specialized in cleansing the mesonium-irradiated soil of her home planet of disembodied spirits that had passed on but had not been absorbed into the Great Crystal of Power. "Much better," the native of Taunton stated, clearly unbothered that her target could physically rip her apart if he wanted. "Over the last couple of years, children of various ages have disappeared from homes throughout this part of England. No traces of their whereabouts can be found no matter how much people look into this." Stuffing her pistol into her subspace pocket, she twirled her cane to let it rest in the palm of her free hand, that making the gnarled end ominously glow. "Now, given you've obviously been some sort of undead death cheater for some time — I would assume you use the name 'vampire' to refer to yourself; forgive me for not understanding these things — you seem to me the right sort of person who might know what's going on. Now..."

"_**RESPECT YOUR BETTERS, HU-...!**_"

_**KK-KRACK!**_

The priest screamed as something parted the hair on top of his head, smacking into a nearby tree just as the ear-shaking report of a VERY heavy automatic pistol echoed over the area. Seras blinked as the vampire dropped to his knees, hissing in very real pain as the scalding feeling of blessed silver and holy water burned the top of his head while she looked off to her right...

"_**Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, nurse...!**_"

That made the No-Life King awk in shock as he noted her eyes flashing like hearts as she seemed to mentally undress him right then and there. Seras then blinked as several of the wolves by her whined in delight, then moved to gather around the newcomer as if they were greeting none other than Roman Reigns himself, all of then rearing up to sniff the heady amount of scents from this being who had been touched by all manner of mystical and cosmic forces over the nearly six centuries that Vlad III Țepeș had walked the earth both as mortal man and as soul-consuming vampire, a being MUCH more than the normal run of daywalkers, nightwalkers and demon-spawn that haunted the lives of forces from the Slayers and the Watcher's Council based in London to a near-immortal former frontier lawyer from Kentucky who rose to be president of the United States in that nation's darkest hour...

Seeing his chance, the priest bellowed as he lunged at the Purger of Souls...

...before he rammed into SOMETHING invisible, bouncing from Seras to crash on the ground!

"Sorry to cut in on the fight scene!"

Seras' head snapped over...

...before her eyes went wide on seeing the modern sleeveless battle uniform that had been appearing on Yiziba in recent years — the previous Hisädiaban had died of ebony mesonium-fuelled influenza four years ago — on the wiry raven-haired teen walking out of the forest to stand in the clear, he glaring with undisguised HATE on the priest. Noting the colours on his dress — light silver overall, it had gunmetal grey boots and belt, a black insignia on his chest looking like two double guillemets pointing away from a star — the constable's eyes went wide. "The _**Unending League**_...?!" she hissed on recognizing the uniform of the Attack Spoiler before she blinked as recent memory flashed back. "You're one of those kids from that orphanage in London on the telly this morning...!" she exclaimed, pointing at him.

"_**DIE...!**_"

Both Seras and Desmond Ciardi cried out as the priest lunged at her...

...before a dark blue, gold and brown blur whipped past them both at flank speed!

_**KK-KRUNCH!**_

"You stay right there, 'Father'!"

The priest screamed in agony after a gold boot hit him down THERE at sheer flank speed, making both Alucard and Desmond wince in understandable male sympathy and solidarity at such a strike by the reborn second of the Renown-class battlecruisers, who had appeared before him to put the murderous blighter down before he hurt her new friend, much less the others now on the scene. "You probably couldn't get it up for your wife when she wanted some, you worthless bag of yeast!" Renée Tennant snarled, the Cockney in her voice growing prominent as she glared intently at the downed vampire, who was now nursing his crushed manhood. "Now, I overheard the good copper here ask you about a bunch 'a missing kids over the last couple years! She thinks you got answers...!"

"He does, Madame Repulse."

That was Alucard, who was kneeling now, petting one soul wolf as the others relaxed around them. By then, Renée's sister and the lone Admiral-class battlecruiser built for Britain had joined them. "Your Highness, it is such a delight to see you still 'alive' after all these years," Raven Tennyson-d'Eyncourt said with a polite curtsey, pulling on the sides of her trousers as if they were a skirt. "I feared the worst when the news of Warsaw got to those of your 'fans' serving aboard me just before I was placed in reserve in 1945. I assume the Royal Order has taken interest in tonight's incident."

A laugh escaped the former Voivode of Wallachia as he got to his feet, cupping his trusty Hellsing ARMS 13 millimetre Auto AFCP Jackal in his gloved hands as he returned that polite greeting with a bow of his head. "Madame Renown, you are too kind to my humble self," Alucard declared before he gazed in pity at the priest he had been sent here to destroy. "I trust your sister won't have any issues keeping that fool down while the good constable asks him some questions?"

A snort escaped Renée as she gazed in sheer disgust at the priest. "A blood-sucker against 32,220 long tons of first-rate _**battlecruiser**_?! I like to see this undead wanker even TRY at that..." An evil smile crossed her face. "If he don't want to get a VERY short HAIRCUT at the TOWER OF LONDON!"

"Hold him still, please."

Renée remained in place as Seras walked over, twirling her staff to jab the business end into the side of the priest's head, causing the poor creature to shriek in agony as the mesonium-fuelled mystical energies of the Purger of Souls got to work on him. Her eyes glowed as she drew a PAA from her belt, tapping it to allow the device to link with her mind so she could get all the information from those poor souls this monster had absorbed on killing them. Grunting as several dark images flashed before her mind's eye, the native of Taunton snarled, making the soul wolves rear up in echo of their mistress' anger, they growling in turn. Watching this, Alucard mentally winced in sympathy as he watched the very beautiful policewoman literally RIP away every soul this vampire had absorbed ever since his turning; each time it happened, the poor fool's body jolted as if he was being jabbed by a live wire.

No, he was NOT going to try to provoke young Constable Victoria with his usual pranks.

He liked his current undead life, thank you very much...!

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, she pulled her staff back, eliciting a final croak of agony from the priest before all the strength in his body faded. "Bloody WIZARDS, too...?!" Seras hissed as she got up, the urge to draw her pistol and unload it the FAST way into this monster's groin to add onto the misery Renée gave him with a well-aimed boot. "Pedophile BITCH...!"

That made the shipgirls hiss in total outrage as Desmond's fist clenched, his teeth gnashing as murderous thoughts flashed through his mind. "What did you see, Constable Victoria?" Raven then wondered as she waved her sister off from crushing the creature's skull.

"Middle-aged woman. Has a THING for pre-adolescent boys. Prefers 'muggle' ones, whatever the heck THAT means!" Seras snapped, shaking her head in confusion.

"Umale r'betike," Alucard stated.

Seras' head snapped over. "'Dead-blood same'?!" she wondered.

"There's a hidden magical society in Britain, ma'am," Desmond explained as he crossed his arms. "Ruled even by their own version of the House of Lords and a minster that's SUPPOSED to answer to the Queen! Turns out it's a bloody freak show of arrogant sods who don't care a bleeding bit for normal folk like we were before we were Gifted; 'muggle' is what they call us. You can probably guess how much the umale r'betike care for 'muggleborns' who join their society when they're just KIDS!"

"Did you get a name, Constable?" Mary Hood then asked, her own depression momentarily forgotten as the horror of what Seras just discovered sank in, making the adopted native of Butleigh shudder.

"Yes. Timaea Crouch."

That made Alucard's eyes widen. "Oh, dear! The sins are coming home to roost indeed."

The others looked at him. "Whatever do you mean, Your Highness?" Raven mused.

The No-Life King coldly laughed. "That, madame, must wait for us to speak to the good Captain Slaed at Gashleycrumb. Knowing the Schwarze Mädchen, they would have sworn all sorts of interesting oaths to deal with Madame Crouch when the time is right. I suggest we get to London before we direct the good constable here to her target to torture to her heart's content."

Seras' eyes glistened with delight. Okay, she had just figured out that this VERY handsome vampire was the legendary Prince of Wallachia from the Fifteenth Century who had served as inspiration for Bram Stoker's legendary novel. From the memories of those members of the S&AC who had been in on the child prostitution ring supplying kids to the likes of this Timaea Crouch lady, "Count" Dracula was a being to be avoided AT ALL COSTS; when it came to the undead, the former ruler of Wallachia was at the apex of the vampire pecking ladder! Since his arrival in Britain during the late Victorian Era, he was known to work for a "muggle" monster-hunting agency that had frequently been at loggerheads with the local magical ministry, which was seen as a serious no-no in the eyes of "proper purebloods"; was that why Alucard mentioned the term _**umale r'betike**_ just now? "I'm in on that scene, Your Highness!"

"I suspected you would be, Constable. Oh, Madame Repulse, if you can please move your foot?"

Renée blinked, then she smiled, lifting her foot away from the priest's head...

_**KK-KRACK!**_

As the priest's head became a fine mist of ichor before his body disintegrated into dust, Seras looked over. "Um...is this group you're with hiring, Your Highness?!" she helpfully asked. As the others gazed in confusion at her, the native of Taunton added, "Since I'm Gifted now, normal police work seems..."

"What?" Desmond asked.

She hummed and hawed for a moment before slumping. "So _**same**_...!"

Alucard gaped in delight at her, then he roared with laughter...

* * *

_**Gashleycrumb, a half-hour later...**_

"Ah, Frau Crouch...did you really believe you'd get away from us forever...?"

Hearing the chill in Andrea Slaed's voice, Emma Bacon gazed at her. "You've met this 'distinguished' _**person**_, Captain?" the first modern battleship asked, her voice dripping with disgusted scorn.

"Nein, Frau Kapitän. Unfortunately," the native of the former chief city of the Hanseatic League's local circle of trading centres covering modern-day North Rhine-Westphalia affirmed with a stiff nod while she fought down the urge to unleash her magic on something to allow her to vent her outrage at this discovery. "But she is well known to us thanks to the man we hold responsible for the murders of the families of all British members of our brigade during the early part of the Befreiungskriege."

"He was the senior undersecretary of then-Minister for Magic Leonard Spencer-Moon, a rather unreasonable chap named Benedict Fenwick," Sherlock Holmes added as people relaxed having late night tea in the main cafeteria. With most of the children resident at Gashleycrumb now asleep in their dorms, the only ones awake were the members of the Unending League living here; the sleeping children were being watched over now by the six Deutschland-class linienschiffe who had been reborn over the last month. Having been joined now by Alucard and Seras Victoria — the three battlecruisers who went with Desmond Ciardi to Cheddar had gone to Saint Mungo's to augment the rest of the reborn Battlecruiser Force and await further orders — the meeting was jointly led by the senior dreadnoughts of the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet along with the former band mistress of the Schwarze Mädchen. "Ancestrally a half-blood, almost exactly like the late and not lamented Dolores Umbridge who was atomized Saturday by Charlene Boleyn when she and Mary Hood reported to Mycroft at Hogwarts; his attitudes towards those who were not 'pure' were practically the same as hers. Or so the various reports about the man compiled by MI5 reported that Mycroft frequently passes on to me." He gazed on Andrea. "How long did Margareta Hecht take to kill the man?"

"She kept him in pain for two hours before finishing him off," Andrea said with a mirthless smirk as people there grinned in savage delight on hearing that such a useless being had been punished most severely for the crime of killing INNOCENT people, all to hurt their daughters who had simply banded together to fight for a better future for humans regardless if they were metahuman or normal. "Sadly, a rapid-reaction force of Aurors who came down from Hogwarts when the raid was launched to destroy the loyalty stone system throughout the British Empire ended Gretta's fun with the falsches totesblut."

"Your powers include necromancy, Constable?" Sherlock dryly wondered.

A shrug answered him as Alucard roared with laughter; the No-Life King had always admired the famous consulting detective for his very dark wit whenever the mood struck him. "Personally, if he's been dead for THAT long, Mister Holmes, I can't do something like that," Seras apologetically said, shrugging. Her eyes then sparkled as she added, "If there's some sort of soul copy or soul echo of the bastard, though, I could probably do something. Don't magicals make something like that?"

"Magical paintings," John Watson stated, snapping his fingers.

Sherlock nodded. "Nymphadora!"

A howling screech echoed from outside, followed by stomping feet as a certain metamorphmagus auror trainee stormed into the room. "Damn it all to Hades, Sherlock! DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Nymphadora Tonks snarled as she resisted the urge to level her wand at the man and hex him to next week; much that she was a big admirer of the famous consulting detective, her loathing of her given name...!

"Oh, stop that, Dora-san!" Osamu Shirayuki called out as she carried a fresh kettle of tea over from the kitchen to serve people. "Sherlock-sensei wanted to make sure you were still on your toes and not dozing off." As Tonks flushed, the Great Chef of the West picked up a clean cup to pour a drink, then she handed it over. "Now drink! Sherlock-sensei needs a favour done for Seras-san and you're falling asleep on your feet! Hime's NOT going to make that disgusting pepper-up potion for you!"

Wincing as the younger girl glared at her, Tonks reluctantly took the cup as people in the room chuckled in amusement. "She's right, you know," Steve Austin affirmed from a table he was sharing with Basil Ashbery and Ernest Wilder. "I can smell the stuff on you. You can't do that to yourself, Tonks."

That made the pink-haired auror gape. "Then how...?" she asked, pointing to Shirayuki.

"Trofikinesis, Dora," Sherlock explained as he gave Tonks a droll look, trying not to roll his eyes; much that he did have admirers among people working under Amelia Bones, too many of them were just so thick-headed. In that, he had long agreed with Hermione Granger's dry observation that magicals most often didn't have an ounce of LOGIC within their souls. "Shirayuki has a virtual dictionary of food in her mind; that helps her in her _transfiguration_ of various materials to make edible food for people to consume." Here, he used the magical term deliberately to make her understand. "In one sense — though I'm sure Severus would argue that — potions ARE food, especially if they're prepared to benefit one's health. She could telekinetically detect what you made as easily as Steve or I can smell it."

That made the native of Petersfield gape yet again. No matter how much she had tried her best to train her mind to be able to fully function in both magical and normal realms, the deductive and reasoning abilities of the man before her seemed practically Merlin-level. "Sherlock, no offence, but are you SURE you're not a metahuman?!" she demanded, putting her fists to her hips.

Laughter filled the room as John winked at her while Tonks relaxed and moved to sip her tea. "Do senior undersecretaries of the various Ministers in your group have magical portraits done of them — was that the right term, Doctor Watson? — Constable Tonks?" Seras then asked.

The other woman nodded. "Sure! Umbridge's just woke up before I came here this morning after the call came from Master Mycroft about this place." She then shook her head. "Had to silence the toad before I came over here. You should have HEARD her scream and complain...!"

"Is there a portrait of Benedict Fenwick, Frau Jagdhexe Tonks?" Andrea asked.

Tonks' hair instantly cycled through several shades as her mind interpreted Andrea's calling her by the rank title "hunting witch", a mid-level designation used in the Magische Reichsarmee for personnel who were equivalent to British Army corporals. "Um...yeah, Captain, it's there!" she then sputtered.

"Then take Frau Polizeimeister Victoria there so she can practice using her powers on the painting and overcome this horrid post-Gifting shock I've heard those from Earth who are given such powers normally undergo," the native of Dortmund ordered. "Herr Unterstaatssekretär Fenwick was the lover to Timaea Crouch before Gretta dealt with the falsches totesblut in 1942..."

"Huh?! Director Crouch's mom?! What about her, ma'am?"

"She is under suspicion as an accomplice for child smuggling," Seras added.

Tonks jolted, then she saw the members of the Unending League in the room gaze hopefully her way. "Oh, bloody hell, this just gets worse by the minute! C'mon!" she then bade the native of Taunton.

"The floo is in my office!" Andrea added.

"Thanks, ma'am!"

With that, the two women ran out of the room...

...just as the Spirit of Innocence walked in, yawning. "Why was Dora-san running so fast?" Saeru Hinako wondered as she paused by the doorway to gaze after them.

"More missing kids, Hinako-chan. Magicals are probably involved," Hatoyama Rinrin explained, gazing over from the table she shared with Titus Kenney, Neville Wolf and Hector Eliot.

Hearing that, the native of Niigata moaned. "Oh, Hina HATES it when magicals start acting like baka-bakas!" she muttered as Shirayuki came over with a cup of tea for her to sip. "Hina needs some tea!"

John gave her a concerned look. "There's no harm in getting some sleep, Hinako," the retired Army doctor then chided; his long experience quickly told him that the child was running herself ragged. "The whole thing with the Goa'uld tomorrow wouldn't really involve something like you in the end."

Hinako sat down beside James Bellairs. "Hina knows that, Sensei, but Hina still has to go to the fight scene," she advised before sipping her tea. "After all, Hina helped bring lots and lots and lots of shipgirls back since she found Fujiko-chan back in spring vacation. Even if all the shipgirls at Welcome House see Onii-tama as their admiral these days, they still want Hina to be there when they go beat up the nasty Goa'uld to protect Lum-san's people from being invaded!"

"Morale does win battles, Doctor," Ida Saint Clair added; as the leader of the Unending League's British wing, she sat at the other end of the line of tables from where the building's new owner was relaxing.

"Besides, both the _Discovery_ and the _Leónov_ are the most heavily-shielded ships in the whole galaxy," Rinrin added as she shared a knowing look with her new friends. "Even if Hinako-chan takes a nap while the fight scene is going on, the girls will know she's safe and sound."

"Don't forget what Nē-sama would do if she found out Hinako-chan was hurt!" Shirayuki added.

Both the Technological Sorceress of the East and the Great Chef of the West giggled as they imagined what their beloved elder half-sister would do to any Goa'uld system lord foolish enough to hurt a single HAIR on the head of the Spirit of Innocence, they echoed by the other metahumans in the room, human-born and shipgirl alike. Even if they had yet to meet Tariko Katabarbe, the members of the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet had been immediately briefed by Charlene Boleyn and Luisa von Bismarck on what the current incarnation of the Trickster of the Show, _**Tuyuki**_ ("_**Coyote**_"), had done over the last decade and more that launched Earth's second true Age of Metahumans...

"_**WERWOLF SCHLEIM! WIE KANNST DU ES WAGEN, DIESE UNIFORM SU TRAGEN?!**_"

Heads snapped over. "Amélie-san?!" Hinako called out.

People got up and moved to look into the hallway where the shouting came from just as a young man's cry of pain echoed through the building. Spinning around the corner to look towards the main entrance with Ida and Hinako in the lead, everyone then stopped on seeing one reborn aircraft carrier firmly grasping a young man about Rinrin's age in a two-arm hold behind his back. And while the noticeable feline ears peeking out of his temples made some of the viewers blink in confusion, it was his current UNIFORM that had clearly set off the adopted native of Konstanz and Friedrichshafen.

"_**SCHRÖDINGER-SAN?!**_" Hinako exclaimed.

That earned the Spirit of Innocence a surprised yelp from the felinoid therianthrope who had just teleported himself into the heavily-shielded magical manor house that he had been dispatched to. As soon as the newcomer in the uniform of the Hitlerjugend focused his fuchsia eyes on the very young girl in the white uniform with the red heart on her upper chest, his pale skin turned a sickly grey as his upper ears flattened. "Um...F-f-Fraulein H-h-Hinako...! Guten Abend...!" he croaked...

...before the hand of the Spirit of Innocence landed on his forehead between those ears.

The people seeing this all gaped in shock as the newcomer's face melted from shock to sheer _**bliss**_ as Hinako's fingers started stroking his scalp between those ears. And if the sight of that didn't weird the onlookers out enough, seeing the VERY mirthless smile cross the face of the native of Niigata as she continued to PET started to totally creep out the other human-born Yizibajohei present.

"Schrödinger-san, why does Hina think that Schrödinger-san is doing something SILLY tonight?" Hinako asked in a voice that had no real humour in it whatsoever as Shirayuki and Rinrin came through the crowd to stand protectively closer to her. "Schrödinger-san knows that Hina doesn't like it when Schrödinger-san and his friends got out and do silly things all the time!"

"Oooh! Schrödinger-kun's here?!"

Hearing that voice nearly turned the poor man into stone just as Yotsuba Dunn came running up from the basement, she skidding to a stop to Schrödinger's left, that move making the feline therianthrope yelp as his eyes then focused right at the caramel orbs of the Master Interrogator. "Oooh!" the native of London then purred as she drew out her handy magnifying glass to gazed right at him; said device had been augmented quite considerably to aid Yotsuba in telepathic interrogations. "Yotsuba KNOWS that Schrödinger-kun is doing something really, really, really naughty tonight!" she teased in a voice that sent shanks of pure ICE down the backs of the other people hearing this. "Schrödinger-kun KNOWS what Yotsuba will do to him if Schrödinger-kun doesn't let Yotsuba check ALL his secrets!"

As a whimper escaped their new prisoner, the members of the League watching this exchanged looks. "Damn!" Yorick Garvey hissed. "Those girls have GOT to teach us how they do that!"

Agreeing nods answered that observation from the Power of Legions...

_**To Be Concluded...!**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

_Harry Potter_ character notes: **Arnold Peasegood** first appeared in _Goblet of Fire_. **Helbert Spleen** was a columnist who wrote advice articles in _The Daily Prophet_; such would appear in the real-time _**Prophet**_ which was published from 1998-99 for the Official Harry Potter Club. The **Most Noble House of Wenlock/Viscountcy of Tinworth** is my creation, but is based on the character of Professor **Bridget Wenlock** (the witch who first discovered the magical properties of the number 7); she appeared in Famous Wizard Cards issued with the video games based on the first three Harry Potter books. **Elisabet Maris** would have appeared in the third _Wizards and Avalonians_ story; actually appearing there was **Margareta Hecht**. **Timaea Crouch** is my creation; she first appeared in _The Seventh Shipgirl_. **Benedict Fenwick** is also my creation; he was first mentioned in the third _Wizards and Avalonians_ story, though this was before JKR finally put out the list of Ministers for Magic in the United Kingdom. **Leonard Spencer-Moon** was Minister for Magic from 1939-48; this was first revealed in _Pottermore_.

**Her Majesty's Ships **_**President**_ and _**King Alfred**_ of two of several "stone frigates" (naval shore facilities) under the control of the Royal Naval Reserve. It should be noted that all British shipgirls would be administratively assigned to any of these units while being seen as "operationally detached" to the **Royal Specialized Warfare Fencibles**, which is considered an all-arms unit recruiting from all four uniformed services of the Crown (Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines). _President_ recruits and administers personnel from London and the southeast of England while _King Alfred_ administers personnel from the area around Southampton.

Translation list: **Bōsōzoku** — Literally "violent running (out of control) tribe", the Japanese euphemism for outlaw motorcyclists; **Yōma** — Monster; **Admirale** — German plural form of "admiral"; Große Flotte — Grand Fleet; **Meine Freiinen** — Plural of "meine Freiin" ("My Baroness"); **Vampir** — Vampire; **Iesus Christus in Caelo** — Jesus Christ is in Heaven; **Cum Mortuis Loquentur** — Speaks with the Dead; **Hisädiaban** — Exorcist; **Befreiungskriege** — Wars of Liberation; **Polizeimeister** — Master policeman, the equivalent of a sergeant; **Unterstaatssekretär** — State Undersecretary; **Falsches Totesblut** — Fake dead-blood; **Werwolf Schleim! Wie kannst du es wagen, diese Uniform zu tragen?** — Werewolf slime! How dare you wear this uniform?; **Hitlerjugend** — Hitler Youth, the Nazi Party's children's wing.

Ye old shipgirl list for this particular part — which is much, much, MUCH smaller this time! — starting with the ships lost at the **Second Battle of Narvik** (13 April 1940):

Fregattenkapitän **Gisela Thiele** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z2 Georg Thiele**_ [pennant Z2])  
FKpt **Wilma Zenker** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z9 Wolfgang Zenker**_ [pennant Z9])  
FKpt **Bianka **_**Freiin**_** von Arnim** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z11 Bernd von Arnim**_ [pennant Z11])  
FKpt **Trudl Giese** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z12 Erich Giese**_ [pennant Z12])  
FKpt **Emma Koellner** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z13 Erich Koellner**_ [pennant Z13])  
FKpt **Anna **_**Freiin**_** von Roeder** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z17 Diether von Roeder**_ [pennant Z17])  
FKpt **Heidi Lüdemann** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z18 Hans Lüdemann**_ [pennant Z18])  
FKpt **Marlene Künne** KMDR (**Kriegsmarineschiff **_**Z19 Hermann Künne**_ [pennant Z19])

**KMS **_**Georg Thiele**_ (**Gisela Thiele**), **KMS **_**Hans Lüdemann**_ (**Heidi Lüdemann**) and **KMS **_**Hermann Künne**_ (**Marlene Künne**) take after their _Azur Lane_ selves. **KMS **_**Diether von Roeder**_ (**Anna von Roeder**) will take after Heidi's _Victory Belles_ interpretation. **KMS **_**Erich Koellner**_ (**Emma Koellner**) resembles the _Warship Girls_ version of **KMS **_**Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp**_ (**Mara Heidkamp**); should she appear in these stories, Mara would resemble her _Azur Lane_ self.

Now, the "professor" that was spoken of by **KMS **_**Bismarck**_ (**Luisa von Bismarck**):

Captain **Samantha Langley** USN (**United States Ship **_**Langley**_ [CV-1])

Of course, **USS **_**Langley**_ (**Samantha Langley**) will take after the version of her shown in the _KanColle_ fan production _**Pacific: World War II US Navy Shipgirls**_.

And the three Royal Navy battleships who reported back to duty here:

Captain **Katharine Patterson** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**King George V**_ [pennant 70])  
Capt **Sophia Howe** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Howe**_ [pennant 71])  
Capt **Isabella Anson** RN (**Her Majesty's Ship **_**Anson**_ [pennant 45])

**HMS **_**King George V**_ (**Katharine Patterson**) will take after her _Azur Lane_ self. **HMS **_**Howe**_ (**Sophia Howe**) resembles the _Warship Girls_ version of her elder sister **HMS **_**Prince of Wales**_ (**Jean Leach**). Likewise, **HMS **_**Anson**_ (**Isabella Anson**) would take after the _Warship Girls_ version of the middle sister of their class of fast battleships, **HMS **_**Duke of York**_ (**Louise Teck**).

_Hellsing_ notes: If you didn't guess, the priest that was there to help **Prudence O'Hara** (**Honey Badger**) is none other than Father **Alexander Anderson**, the supreme hunter of the Vatican's top secret **Section XIII** (AKA **Iscariot**); he first appeared in the first volume of the manga series, the third episode of the television series "Sword Dancer" and the first episode of the _Hellsing: Ultimate_ OVA series. **Helena Wall** (her family name is my invention) first appeared in the television series' seventh episode, "Duel". Of course, if you know _Hellsing_, you will definitely know who **Alucard**, **Seras Victoria** and **Integra Hellsing** are. While Seras' original police department was never identified, the village of **Cheddar** does exist in County Somerset; thus, she would fit into the **Avon and Somerset Constabulary** serving as the local police force. Naturally, the **Cheddar priest** (who was never named) made his appearance in the first volume of the manga and the first episodes of the television and OVA series. Finally, **Schrödinger** first appeared in the fourth volume of the manga series and the fourth OVA episode.

The issue with Yiziba's **yuoti-suo** ("soul wolves") and **Roman Reigns** (AKA Joseph Anoa'i) was first noted on in Part 14 of the main story.


End file.
